Woman pleads guilty after throwing ‘liquid’ at police

A woman has pleaded guilty to throwing ‘liquid’ at police officers during a disturbance outside a hotel believed to be housing asylum seekers.

Nevey Smith, 21, of West Street, Failsworth, has pleaded guilty to violent disorder on July 31. Prosecutor Tess Kenyon said that there was a large-scale disturbance outside a hotel on Oldham Road, during which Smith was seen to throw a liquid from a bottle towards the police officers.

“This was after two people who were seeking asylum had gone into the hotel,” she said. “She had a child in a stroller with her at the time.”

Mitigating, Robert Moussalli said his client, who wept throughout, was ‘deeply sorry’. “She was taking her child to her grandmother’s when she saw her auntie standing with some people near to the hotel and went to talk to her,” he said.

“Then people started shouting and she moved to the front of the group and her auntie went to the back with her child. She wasn’t planning to do anything.”

He said Smith had thrown water, but it had not made contact with the officers. He added that she ‘lost her temper’ when someone from behind the police ‘shouted at her’.

“I accept she brought it entirely on herself,” Mr Moussalli added.

Granting her bail with stringent conditions, District Judge Joanne Hirst said: “I am prepared to give you one opportunity. You put your own child at risk.”

She will next appear at Manchester Crown Court for sentence on August 19.

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