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A woman who told a gang of swearing teenage girls to be quiet spent 16 hours in a police cell after being falsely accused of assault. Sue Pearson, of Netherton, Merseyside, spent five months on bail until the case was dismissed by magistrates. She said: "I did nothing wrong but was put through five months of hell simply because I stood up to these yobs." One of the girls had scratches on her arm and police said there had not been enough evidence to pursue a case. Ms Pearson, 45, remonstrated with the gang of four teenagers because they were swearing and making rude gestures outside her sister's home in Bootle in October. She said she told them to be quiet, but a row ensued and police were called. One of the girls then complained Ms Pearson had scratched her. Despite protesting her innocence, the mother-of-seven was held in a police cell for 16 hours before being charged with common assault. Ms Pearson said: "I thought they would help but they read me my rights. My stomach just sank to the floor. "I was thrown in a cell overnight. I was terrified. I was shaking and vomiting and crying. "They charged me and I was convinced I would go to prison and lose my children. "That was my worst fear, that they would be taken off me for something I had not done. "I certainly will think twice before intervening in anything again." Police evidence Ms Person subsequently spent five months on bail before her trial at South Sefton Magistrates' Court on 3 March. On the first day, magistrates agreed to a defence submission that there was no case to answer after it emerged the scratches were accidental. Ms Pearson's solicitor, James Murray, said: "Bringing this case was simply political correctness gone mad. "Ms Pearson is a law abiding citizen who simply did what anyone of us would do if we saw children misbehaving on the street. "But the police who investigated immediately took the side of the children involved, they did not give Ms Pearson any credit for her good character." Chief Inspector Stuart Ellison, of Merseyside Police, said officers launched the action because they found a 15-year-old girl with injuries. "A number of statements were taken, not only from the friends of the victim but also from the family of the woman arrested, in order to gain as full a picture as possible of the circumstances of the incident. "All evidence gathered was then presented to the Crown Prosecution Service who made a decision that there was enough evidence to charge her with common assault." A spokeswoman for the CPS said they had based the decision to prosecute on the evidence presented by Merseyside Police.
Bootle. Enough said. It looks like the Luftwaffe only just left.
