Feral mums brawled in school playground in front of terrified kids after becoming 'embroiled in love triangle'
TWO feral mums brawled in the school playground in front of terrified kids after becoming embroiled in a love triangle, a court heard.
Mum-of-four Natasha Sherlock, 29, clashed with 28-year-old Samantha Rylance after accusing her of sleeping with her ex.
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A court heard she yelled "do not f**ing talk to my kids" after her daughter waved at Rylance on the playground.
The pair began scrapping - with mum-of-three Rylance slapping her love rival in the face, it was said.
Sherlock then punched Rylance before the fight was eventually broken up - with both women ending up sporting black eyes.
Police were called and CCTV of the attack was handed over by the primary school's headteacher.
Sherlock stood trial for assault by beating but was cleared after insisting she acted in self-defence.
But District Judge Paul Healey, who viewed the CCTV, slammed the mum.
He said: ''This took place on a school playground, with parents and kids around.
"It is a thoroughly unpleasant incident to witness.''
Sefton Magistrates' Court was told the violence erupted on July 10 last year as parents picked their children up from the school in Wallasey.
The pair had previously been friends but fell out after Sherlock claimed Rylance had a one night stand with her ex.
Rylance told the hearing she was coming to pick up her son when Sherlock insulted her from across the playground
She said after collecting her son, she walked over to another playground to meet her partner Callum Roberts, who was picking up their older children.
The mum told the court she saw Sherlock being "aggressive" towards her partner.
She continued: "When she saw me she said 'Yes, f****ing you'. I said 'Leave it, we are on the playground. There are kids around'.
"But she said, 'Come on, come on, let's go outside' and started grabbing my top. She was screaming and shouting.
"She initially knocked my glasses off and as gentleman picked them she was pulling on my top. I knocked her hand away to defend myself but she swung and hit me across the face and that is when it turned into the fight itself.
''After the incident I felt awful. The kids did not want to go to school or let me to take them to school in case I got attacked again."
CCTV showed Sherlock approaching Callum just moments before the fight exploded.
Callum and Sherlock's dad Robert, who had also gone to the school, managed to break the sparring pair up.
In her evidence Sherlock agreed she had fallen out with Rylance and added: "It was quite a bad one.
"On that day she said 'Hi' to my daughter and I said 'Do not talk to my child.' I knew she was trying to wind me up.
"I tried walking off but Samantha carried on screaming stuff. If anyone was attacked it was me and I hit her back. I was only aggressive when she started shouting at me."
In mitigation, Sherlock's lawyer Paul Davison accused Rylance of being the "aggressor".
He said: "If she is scared of the defendant and if she hears the defendant shout words when she has a young child with her, why approach unless you are looking for trouble?
"You just wouldn't but she does."
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Often our clients have backgrounds in the care system, sometimes in the military. Often people are leaving a government institution – they might be discharged from hospital, or be being moved on from the asylum system, or they might have left prison. 'I can't see how criminalising someone is helpful. We see the numbers of people coming out of the criminal justice system into homelessness. Feeding them back into the criminal justice system for being homeless, or feeding people who are homeless for other reasons back into the justice system, seems entirely counterproductive.' Proposed new offences target aggressive beggars and gangs, rather than individuals. The cautionary example of the US, however, shows what can happen when authorities have insufficient powers to disperse rough sleepers. The knottier issue at the heart of legislation is that many people don't think camping ought to be illegal and have great sympathy for those who find themselves homeless, even if they object to the sight of tent cities in some of London's most prestigious areas. The legal fudges reflect this Nimbyism. It also means that as a political issue, rough sleeping will not be moving along any time soon.
