AN ANGRY Herefordshire woman has been ordered to attend a thinking skills programme after attacking a teenager in Hereford twice in the same day.

Patricia Laura Lewis admitted assault by beating when she appeared before magistrates in Hereford.

The victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had been out with friends in Hereford's Old Market when she was approached by Lewis on August 21, prosecutor Elizabeth Blacklock said.

Lewis launched an attack on her, pulling her hair and kicking her in the stomach, to which the victim said she did not retaliate because Lewis was pregnant.

The pair again came across each other later that day, while the victim was sat at a table at the Coffee Cart in the Old Market.

Lewis told the victim she would kill her if she moved, and slapped her several times across the face when she got up from the table.

The victim told police the blows had not really hurt, and that she had been more shocked by Lewis' behaviour.

The court heard Lewis had been subject to a community order for a previous battery offence at the time of the offences.

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Edmund Middleton, for Lewis, said the 20-year-old had been angry with the victim.

"In interview she mentioned an assault a few days before, and says the claimant kicked her. She says she lost her temper when she saw her in town," Mr Middleton said.

"Her probation officer has said it would be difficult to imagine a young lady with a more difficult start in life. She has developed some bad coping strategies.

"She was sentenced to six weeks in prison in November and having been released, was recalled very quickly due to not complying with a requirement."

The court heard Lewis had been diagnosed with anti-social personality disorder while in prison and gave birth shortly after her release.

"There is a real increase in her maturity," Mr Middleton said.

"The chaos has evaporated, the problem relationships and ties have stopped. She is making appropriate decisions for the first time in a very long time.

"She is now much more a person who would spend an evening on the sofa with a hot water bottle watching Strictly than associating with unsuitable people."

Lewis, who is of no fixed address, was handed a two-year community order and must undertake a thinking skills programme. She was also fined £80 and must pay costs of £85 and a £85 victim surcharge.