A WOMAN caught with a kitchen knife told a court she carried it for her own protection.

Tanya Thorpe told a judge at Teesside Crown Court she had been attacked a number of times and also threatened with rape.

The court heard how the 33-year-old was involved in an altercation with a group of youths in Redcar after she was called a “smackhead” and a “scruffy cow”.

She was punched and kicked and during the course of the incident, on October 17 last year, dropped the knife she had been carrying.

Amy Dixon, mitigating, said: “She appreciates she should not have been in possession of the knife.”

Thorpe, of Crescent Road, Middlesbrough, admitted possession of a bladed article. She interrupted Judge Howard Crowson's sentencing remarks to complain that the police had done nothing about a number of attacks she had previously suffered.

Judge Crowson said: "Courts take carrying of knives in public very seriously because of the grave harm that can be done."

The judge said he accepted Thorpe did not produce the knife, nor had she intended to use it.

She was given a 20 week jail sentence, suspended for a year.