A MOTHER today described her horror at being handcuffed and arrested after she confronted children who were allegedly bullying her 11-year-old daughter.

Anisa Borsberry, 40, was taken to a police station, finger-printed and made to provide DNA samples and held for questioning after it was claimed she had attacked a girl in a school playground.

Mrs Borsberry, from Lambton, Washington, Tyne and Wear, admitted telling off the girl after her daughter Taylor came home in tears, but denied any kind of assault.

Northumbria Police have now told her she will face no further action.

But she described the week it took for the matter to be cleared up as "hell".

The saga started on July 13 when Taylor returned home upset, claiming to have been bullied outside the gates of Lambton Primary before school began that day.

Mrs Borsberry raced up to the school and confronted a girl she thought was involved.

She said: "I stood and spoke to this girl and asked her what was going on? My daughter Taylor stood by my side the whole time holding my hand."

Then she claimed a boy swore at her, so she told him to "shut up".

Later, the school told Mrs Borsberry that it had received an assault allegation from two pupils, who said she threw a girl against a fence.

The mother said soon after the children withdrew their allegations.

But the next day, a female police officer came to arrest her at home.

Mrs Borsberry refused to go to the police station without her family solicitor, so the officer returned half an hour later and arrested her.

She claimed: "I was dragged outside, where, by this time, the whole street was out."

Neighbours saw the police vehicles and officers waiting outside her home, and came to watch what was going on.

"The only thing that was missing was the police helicopter," she said.

"It was like a scene from a movie."

She said she was held in a Sunderland cell for five hours, while Taylor's father Lee, 37, and brother Myles, 19, were at home consoling the little girl, distraught because she believed it was all her fault.

After questioning, Mrs Borsberry was told she was bailed for 10 weeks.

Around a week later, her solicitor heard the case was not being pursued.

She said: "I cried on the phone with relief.

"I have had a week from hell.

"Those two children do not realise what they have done to me or my character.

"I have been ill with worry and stress for a week.

"I have not been able to eat or sleep and cried 24/7.

"This nightmare is over for me now and thank God.

"To say I am devastated by all this is a total understatement."

In response, Northumbria Police said the mother had acted aggressively when the officer went to speak to her at home.

Chief Inspector Mick Bartle said: "We received an allegation that some children at a school in Washington had been threatened and attacked by a woman, the mother of another child at the school.

"An officer was sent to the school and she spoke to a number of witnesses.

"She then visited the woman at her home and asked her to go to Washington police station as a voluntary attender, so that further enquiries could be made to establish exactly what had happened.

"The woman refused and began to act aggressively towards the officer, who considered that the only suitable course of action was to arrest the woman.

"She was taken to a police station in a police vehicle and handcuffed in accordance with force policy.

"At Gilbridge Avenue police station she was interviewed and released on bail pending further inquiries.

"Those inquiries are now complete and the complaint of assault is not being progressed, so there will be no further police action taken against this woman.

"We have received a letter of complaint from the arrested woman and will be carrying out a full review of all the circumstances before making a response."