A SINGLE mother was asleep in bed when police called in the early hours, a court heard yesterday.

The first Julie Kennedy knew was when she woke to find a male and female officer in her room, telling her she was under arrest, her solicitor, Geoffrey Boothby, told Harrogate magistrates.

Mr Boothby said Kennedy, 39, was confused and an argument developed over invasion of her privacy.

She wanted to be allowed to get dressed on her own and did not want to be arrested in front of her four children, one of whom slept at the foot of her bed.

But the number of officers in the room rose to four and her bare feet were trodden on as they arrested her and carried her out to their van.

She stayed there for 20 minutes while her children, aged 16, seven, six and two, were taken to stay with her mother.

Kennedy, of Gascoigne Crescent, Harrogate, admitted resisting police.

A charge of assault on Alan Rutherford, her former partner and the father of the three youngest children, was dropped.

Mr Boothby said Kennedy and Mr Rutherford had been out but he became abusive and she left. She visited him later but he attacked her. She defended herself but he called the police and accused her of assault.

Police could have waited until the next morning to take action, Mr Boothby said. "But they saw fit to come to her house at 1am while she was asleep," he said.

Kennedy was conditionally discharged for a year by magistrates and told to pay costs of £50.