A WOMAN who brandished a hypodermic syringe at a customer in a Chard pharmacy during a confrontation when she had been shoplifting then said she had hepatitis and spat repeatedly in his face.

Claudette Elisabeth Flower struggled with the victim who was trying to restrain her and then dug her nails into his hip and scratched him up the whole left side of his torso leaving bleeding wounds.

In another incident she spat in the face of a shop worker who had detained her boyfriend at Tesco in Chard, elbowed him in the face and left three deep scratches on his arm which broke the skin.

The 26-year-old defendant, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to a charge that on July 12 at Chard she assaulted Simon Dorrington by beating him.

She also admitted that with intent to cause him harassment, alarm or distress she used threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour during the same incident.

The defendant also pleaded guilty that on September 22, 2018 at Chard she assaulted Steven Goodswen by beating him.

The court was told that on July 12 last year Flower entered Lloyds Pharmacy in Holyrood Street, walked to the back of the store and started taking bottles of perfume from the display.

She put a total of five bottles into a bag before walking to the exit and Mr Dorrington was there buying a prescription.

Prosecutor Danielle Netters said that he saw her taking the perfume and said: “Come on luvvie, put that back and p*** off, I know what you took”.

“Flower barged past him but he grabbed her bag and put his hand on her shoulder and she shouted at him to let go but the male managed to restrain her.

“She got an arm free and reached in her bag and pulled out a capped syringe saying she had hepatitis but Mr Dorrington managed to put pressure on her wrist causing her to drop it and a member of staff picked it up.

“Flower then spat at the male three times with some of the spittle landing on his glasses and she then pulled out three bottles of perfume and dug her nails into the victim’s right hip and scratched him up his right side up to the chest area causing him to bleed.”

In a separate incident on September 22 staff at Tesco in Chard were detaining Flower’s boyfriend outside the store for a suspected shoplifting offence.

The defendant ran over and started to hit them when one staff member Steven Goodswen attempted to stop her by holding her arms.

She spat in his face and elbowed an scratched him, the court heard.

The court heard that Flower accepted the assault but said she was defending her boyfriend and understood she had gone too far.

Defending, Ray Peters said his client had not been in trouble since the commission of these offences.

He said she had pleaded guilty on the basis that she did not remove the cap on the syringe or threaten to stab Mr Dorrington and did not threaten that she had hepatitis.

He added that Flowers also claimed she had not spat at the victim but had been shouting at him and accepted some spittle may have come from her mouth as she spoke with a lisp.

The prosecution did not accept this basis of plea, although the magistrates said they did not require a Newton hearing as the difference would not materially affect their sentencing.

The magistrates sentenced Flower to a 12 month community order with a 15 day Rehabilitation Activity Requirement and ordered her to pay a total amount of £100 in compensation.

No costs or victim surcharge were imposed.