A DRUNKEN mother went on the rampage in a secondary school, beating up a school nurse and breaking a door, a court heard.

Cheryl Allen, 44, of Clifton Road, Chesham, was told yesterday by Amersham magistrates she could face jail after admitting assault and criminal damage.

Allen had been drinking when she went to Dr Challoner's High School, in Cokes Lane, Little Chalfont, on December 7 to look for matron Susan Jordan, the court was told.

Richard Sothcott, prosecuting, said: "On this particular day it was the afternoon the defendant was extremely drunk, so much so that a passing motorist, also a parent, was concerned about the defendant's welfare. She actually lay down in the road at one point.

"This parent said she Allen was extremely drunk. She wanted to be taken to the school. When she reached near the school she tried to get out of the car before it stopped.

"She got into the school and was looking for the school matron. The matron came out of the building and almost without any gap she was attacked by the defendant.

"She was repeatedly punched around the head and kicked to the legs. The parent who'd dropped her off stepped in and another member of staff came out to the assistance of the matron, who eventually got away."

Allen chased her victim and tried to follow her back into the school, the court heard. Staff barricaded their front door with a table and Allen began kicking at a reinforced glass panel to get through it.

Mr Sothcott told the hearing Dr Challoner's head Sue Lawson, who arrived at the scene, said later she believed Allen had kicked the panel 50 times. Allen managed to kick a hole in the £50 reinforced glass panel before being arrested.

She said after her arrest she could not remember what had happened.

Allen had previously been in touch with the school over her drink problem, the court heard.

She accepted that by committing the offences she was also in breach of a conditional discharge for an unrelated offence of theft, handed to her by Watford magistrates on July 4, last year.

Allen offered no mitigation in court, although her solicitor said there was "substantial mitigation" and that she disputed some of the prosecution evidence.

Ordering pre-sentence reports, magistrates' chairman Gina Griggs said: "These offences are so serious a custodial sentence cannot be ruled out."

Allen will appear for sentencing at Amersham Magistrates Court on February 27. Mrs Jordan was unavailable for comment.

February 14, 2002 13:38