A jobless teenager has been given a dressing down – after a judge heard she spends her life “receiving benefits and taking drugs”.

Mary Cooke, 19, of Arlington, South Ashford, has never worked after leaving school, Canterbury Crown Court was told.

Judge James O’Mahony asked her lawyer: “What is wrong with your client? She is 19 and hasn’t done a day’s work since leaving school.

“She would appear to spend all her time taking drugs and receiving benefits because of her emotional wellbeing.”

Lawyer Kerry Waitt told the judge: “She suffers from low self-esteem.”

But the judge retorted: “I am not aware of any medical condition of low self-esteem.

“These words are banded around and promoted as a diagnosed illness. If you spend your time and money taking drugs then you probably wouldn’t feel on top of the morning.”

The judge then told the teenager: “Now, you don’t need to listen to an old man if you don’t want to but I strongly suggest that if you stop taking drugs you will feel much better and you will be much happier.

“And if you are able to get a job, which I hope you do, then you will feel so much better and not suffer from this so-called low self-esteem.”

Mr Waitt said Cooke was a “vulnerable girl” who needed help in “pulling up her socks and doing something with her life”.

The court heard that she had gone to the Tickled Trout pub in Wye and ended up attacking her boyfriend James Franklin, who is now in custody, accused of assaulting her.

Mr Franklin was later treated for a fractured eye-socket after the punch-up in the pub and Cooke later admitted inflicting grievous bodily harm.

Mr Waitt said: “There was pushing and shoving and the two were behaving as badly as each other. They are no longer together.”

Judge O’Mahony told the teenager her early plea of guilty to assault causing actual bodily harm saved her from an immediate jail term.

“I am not aware of any medical condition of low self-esteem" - Judge James O'Mahony

He said: “At one point you did some charity work but that didn’t last long. Now you receive public money, which is a good thing for the community.

“But it is perfectly clear you spend that money on drugs. What happened that night wasn’t just between you and your then partner when you punched his lights out.

“Other people were out that night enjoying themselves in a public house and they had to put up with this sort of behaviour. This is your last chance.”

She was given a nine month jail sentence, suspended for two years, and ordered not to contact Franklin until further notice.