A MUM appeared in Warrington Magistrates' Court on Thursday charged with assault following a fistfight in a primary school playground with another parent.

Katie Cooper, of Northway, was picking up her child from Meadowside Community Primary School on February 7, when a confrontation began.

The 25-year-old had been attempting to parallel park her car a few days before the incident, when her youngest child wriggled free from his seat, which had been loosely fastened due to the fact he had recently undergone surgery.

The court heard that Cooper’s eldest child had attempted to hold her son in his seat while she completed the manoeuvre, during which Cooper spotted another mum giving a ‘disapproving look’.

The defence, Mr Derbyshire, told Warrington Magistrates’ Court that Cooper attended the school again to pick up her child on another day when she received another look from the same woman.

Cooper then approached the woman to explain why her son was not securely fastened in his seat previously, when a confrontation began.

The court heard that the victim had called Cooper a ‘s**t mum’ which caused her to ‘see red’ and begin a physical altercation.

Prosecution for the case, Mrs McGowan, informed the court that Cooper began punching the victim, before grabbing and dragging her by her hair in the school’s playground while swearing at her.

In a police interview, Cooper told police that she had thrown the first punch out of ‘self-defence’ due to the fact the victim had ‘clenched her fists’.

The incident was captured on the school’s CCTV as well as witnessed by members of staff and children.

The court heard that Cooper and the victim have known each other since they were younger and that, while there were no previous physical confrontations between the pair, that there had been tension.

Pictures of the victims’ injuries were shown in court, including her swelled and bruised face and a chunk of her hair that had been ripped out by Cooper during the fight.

“You have before you, somebody who has no previous history of violent offences,” Mr Derbyshire told the court.

“She very much views this as a one-off situation.”

Cooper pleaded guilty to using threatening or abusive words likely to cause distress and assault on a person occasioning them actual bodily harm on March 26.

The 25-year-old was sentenced to a 12-month community order including 20 rehabilitation activity days, 100 hours unpaid work and ordered to pay £100 compensation to the victim.

“We have decided for some compensation to be paid having looked at the pictures,” said the magistrates told Cooper.

“That lady did not deserve that.”