AN ELLESMERE Port mother was arrested after ignoring a court order to keep away from the neighbours she had previously attacked.

Toni Stephenson, 27, had been under strict bail conditions not to make contact with Adam Beecher and his mother Julie Townson after she admitted punching them both over a dispute about loud music.

But last weekend the mother-of-one hung around outside Mr Beecher’s window in the building they both share flats in, and shouted ‘grass’ and various other obscenities, in an apparent verbal attack on Mr Beecher.

On Monday, Chester and Ellesmere Port Magistrates heard how on the evening of May 12, Adam Beecher and his pregnant wife were watching television in their flat on Kenilworth Court, Ellesmere Port, when Stephenson, who lived in the flat below, began to play music at a high volume.

His mother Julie Townson, who was on her way over to her son’s flat, knocked on Stephenson’s door to ask her to turn the music down.

Anouska Youds, prosecuting, told the court how Stephenson refused to turn it down but then invited Mrs Townson inside her flat, where she turned physically violent, punching the older woman in the stomach and winding her.

Mr Beecher, hearing raised voices, came downstairs and tried to restrain Stephenson but he was punched in the face, leaving him with cuts and facial injuries. Police arrived shortly afterwards.

James Edwards, defending, said Stephenson admitted she had made a ‘foolish, stupid mistake’ in breaching her bail conditions but ‘simply didn’t realise the seriousness of what she had done’.

He added: “I would ask you to accept her heartfelt apologies for all she did and said.

“She is the mother of a two-year-old who she is very concerned about, and she had not been in trouble for some time.

“I think she has learned her lesson. There are two sides to every story and I would ask you to accept this.”

Magistrates agreed that Stephenson could be released on bail under the same conditions until her next court appearance, but warned her that if she breached them again the consequences would be serious.

She will appear in court again on July 23.