A WOMAN who breached two suspended sentence orders has walked free from court, despite begging magistrates to send her to prison.

Jamie-Leigh Turnbull admitted one charge of criminal damage when she appeared at Darlington Magistrates’ Court today (Thursday, May 30), which put her in breach of two suspended sentences imposed on her for shoplifting in November 2011 and September 2012.

Chairwoman of the bench, Margaret Cunningham, said magistrates felt it would be unjust to activate the suspended sentence orders and send Turnbull to jail, despite the 20-year-old telling them: “I would rather you just sent us to prison.”

The court heard Turnbull, who has 15 convictions on her record, kicked an automatic door at Darlington Memorial Hospital, causing the glass to crack and the frame to dislodge after she became angry the hospital’s shuttle bus would not arrive for an hour-and-a-half.

Prosecutor John Garside said Turnbull, of no fixed abode, had been discharged from hospital at 7am on Thursday, May 16, but became frustrated after being told the bus would not arrive until 8.30am as she had no other way of getting back to her former home in Bishop Auckland.

In mitigation Kate Duncan said: “She lashed out in a temper at the door in frustration due to not sleeping and not feeling well. She asked if she could have a bed to lie down but was told: ‘This is not a hotel, you will have to leave.’

“It was reckless rather than intentional. She has never served a custodial sentence before; she would be going into custody a very vulnerable woman.”

Probation officer Brenda Robertson, who prepared a pre-sentence report on Turnbull said her engagement with the probation service and a number of other agencies had been poor.

Turnbull pleaded guilty to criminal damage and magistrates gave her a six-month community order with six months of supervision and ordered her to pay £50 towards compensation costs of £206.60 to the hospital.

Chairwoman of bench, Ms Cunningham, chose not to activate Turnbull’s two suspended sentences and increased the operational period of one from 21 months to 24 months, and the other from 12 months to 15 months.

“We feel it would be unjust to send you to prison,” she said. “You have worked with probation for a long time and you would be in prison for a very short time and with very little support.”