A woman waiting to collect her parents from a wedding reception ducked down in fear behind her steering wheel as a gun-wielding female reveller "opened fire", a court heard.

The shocked eyewitness described feeling her stomach "drop" when she saw the "realistic and intimidating" weapon being brandished by Abbie Leadbetter outside Lordswood Leisure Centre.

Leadbetter, who had been at a separate boxing event at the same venue in North Dane Way, Chatham, armed herself with what was described as "a black pistol" as her then boyfriend rowed with a group of men in the car park.

From a distance of a few metres, the 28-year-old then repeatedly pulled back a "slide" on the firearm and discharged it.

Although Maidstone Crown Court was told she aimed into the air, one "stray" ball-bearing struck the onlooker's windscreen while another appeared to hit one of the men in the back.

Having run out of "shots" however, Leadbetter was tackled to the ground and left unconscious in the resulting melee.

Prosecutor Daniel Stevenson said at Leadbetter's sentencing hearing on April 24 that none of the men caught up in the gun incident were identified by police or gave statements.

Therefore, the evidence as to events that occurred around 11.30pm on October 1, 2022, came from CCTV and the eyewitness account.

The onlooker told police that as she sat waiting for her parents to leave the wedding function she saw four men standing directly in front of her car and engaged in a "heated discussion" with another man - Leadbetter's boyfriend.

"She then saw this defendant approach the group, walking from three car lengths away and fiddling with something in her hands," said Mr Stevenson.

"When five to six metres away she repeatedly pulled back a slide on what appeared to be a gun.

"The witness said she believed it was real, her stomach dropped and she thought the defendant was going to shoot the males.

"She was scared for her own safety and didn't know how to react. She could not drive away as the males were in front of her vehicle so she ducked down behind the steering wheel.

"But she could still see what was happening and saw the defendant open fire on the group.

"It was then she realised it was not a real gun but what appeared to be a gas-powered BB gun.

"Pellets hit her windscreen, although she described it as a stray pellet rather than an intentional shot, and left a mark.

"One of the males was screaming, she thought in pain because he had been hit in the back. They ran but then realised the defendant had expired the pellets.

"One male then tackled her to the ground and there was an assault of the defendant as others joined in.

"Her partner also joined in the melee on the floor."

Of the gun's appearance and the firing, the prosecutor told the court it must have been "an extremely scary" incident for those involved and bystanders.

Following her arrest, Leadbetter, of Regis Crescent, Sittingbourne, said trouble had initially flared during the boxing event when her partner became "annoyed" at someone giving her a compliment.

This, said the prosecutor, was the "motivation" for what then occurred once outside.

Leadbetter said she had only fired the weapon, which belonged to her now ex-boyfriend, "into the air to scare people away".

She later admitted possessing an imitation firearm with intent to cause fear of violence, as well as a charge of criminal damage.

At the time she was subject to a two-year conditional discharge for offences of battery, criminal damage and using violence to secure entry to premises committed in December 2020.

The court heard that having discovered the same boyfriend had cheated on her, Leadbetter had gone to the home of "one of the various other women" demanding a fight, forcing a door open and injuring her foot in the process.

Kevin Molloy, defending, said the partner's behaviour at the boxing event and attitude that he could "take on anybody" were the reasons Leadbetter was in the dock again.

But he told the court that while she had once felt she had "no one in her life but him", their relationship was now over.

Describing her as a "fragile and troubled young lady" with a history of self-harm and suicide attempts, Mr Molloy added: "She did a foolish thing to defend what she thought was her man being attacked by a group of individuals outside a boxing event, while fuelled by alcohol, and she got dragged into it."

Passing sentence, Judge Gareth Branston told Leadbetter although she had discharged the firearm intending to "maximise" fear, he accepted much of the blame for what happened that night "lay at the feet" of her ex-partner.

"These were several minutes of madness and foolishness on your part, egged on by someone who was an abusive partner, fuelled by alcohol, into acting in a truly foolish manner with an imitation firearm," the judge remarked.

But on deciding to spare her jail, he added that as well as there being a good prospect of rehabilitation, immediate imprisonment was "not the only way to achieve appropriate punishment".

Judge Branston therefore handed Leadbetter a 20-month prison term suspended for two years, with 30 rehabilitation activity requirements.

She was also ordered to pay £200 compensation to the eye-witness who, he said, "would have no doubt been terrified at the time and thereafter".

Leadbetter thanked the judge as she left court.