A family day out turned into a nightmare when a Pembroke Dock woman spat in a baby’s face and racially abused her.

Michelle Ann Field, of Meyrick Street, was found guilty of racially aggravated common assault after standing trial at Haverfordwest magistrates court on Monday, July 2.

The court heard that a grandmother was outside Pater Hall, Pembroke Dock, with two young children at 11am on July 8, 2017, when she noticed a woman walking down the road who appeared to be talking to herself.

“I had never seen her before. I just carried on playing with my grandchild, I wanted her to go because she look to me like she was drunk.”

The woman told the bench that Field made comments about ‘dirty, stinking gypsies’ while shouting abuse.

She said: “She spat and said ‘that’s what I think of your child’. It was a shock, I did not expect her to turn around and do that.”

The horrified gran realised that Field, 46, had spat in her five-month grand-daughter’s face as she lay in her pram.

The baby’s mother arrived on the scene and rushed the child into the hall to wash the saliva off her face, before handing her to a friend and hurrying down the road after Field.

She and the baby’s grandmother were followed by other witnesses as they walked down the road after Field, and took her by her arms as she came out of the local supermarket.

Witnesses described Field as referring to ‘stinking gypsies’, swearing and rambling when apprehended outside the store, she was taken across the road to the police station where she was arrested.

Field maintained her claim that it was a case of mistaken identity, that she would not spit at a baby and had no idea what was happening when she was ‘jumped by two girls’ after buying a magazine.

She denied that she had been captured on CCTV played to the court which showed her making her way down the road shortly after the incident, or swearing, drinking or taking drugs on the day in question.

In a victim impact statement, the baby’s mother said the child had to attend at least ten separate hospital appointments for various tests following the incident before being given the all-clear.

She said: “What happened to my daughter was absolutely terrible. What was meant to be a nice day turned into a nightmare. The lady that spat at her is vile, the lowest of the low in my opinion.

“I was especially worried because the woman looked so dirty and was frightened that she had some disease.”

She added: “If she can assault a defenceless baby just for her being a gypsy, then she is capable of anything.”

Magistrates found Field guilty and sentenced her to 26 weeks in prison, suspended for 24 months, with a 12 month community order, 25 rehabilitation activity requirement days and 200 hours of unpaid work.

She was also ordered to pay £620 court costs, £200 compensation to the child and a £115 surcharge, to be paid at £5 a week.