by Paul Hooper

A pregnant mum-of-two has been told she will have to give birth in prison - after a trolley rage attack at a Ramsgate supermarket which left a woman with a broken pelvis.

Hayley Cook, 24, is eight months pregnant and expecting her third child just before Christmas.

But a judge told her that the expletive-ridden attack on a woman twice her age was so serious she had to be jailed for a year.

Cook, of Coleman Crescent, had admitted inflicting grievous bodily harm on shopper Lynne White, who was attacked while she stood outside the Tesco Store in February.

Judge Simon Jones told her: "The impending birth of your child will have to be managed within the prison system... and away from your children over Christmas.

"The courts cannot simply stand back and do nothing when people resort to violence for no good reason and in apparent random circumstances."

Prosecutor Donna East told Canterbury Crown Court how Mrs White was waiting for her husband who was at a cashpoint machine when Cook walked past.

Although Mrs White wasn't moving, Cook crashed her trolley into her and then began screaming that her one-year-old son's hand had been trapped and released a volley of foul-mouthed insults.

Cook then left her son sitting in a trolley and "stormed back to Mrs White shouting a flurry of swear words and abuse", she said.

She then grabbed Mrs White's trolley - which contained bottles - and smashed it into other trolleys.

"Mrs White feared her bottles had been smashed and called for her husband, who told her: 'That's enough, don't talk to my wife like that!'

"He then ushered Cook away only to receive a stream of more four-letter insults. Mrs White later said she was surprised just how Cook managed to string so many swear words together in one sentence.

"Cook then walked away and Mr White returned to the cash machine where he had left his card and money.

"Mrs White then told Cook:'You must be some sort of tart of a girl to use all that bad language.' She then turned away when Cook ran at her with her hands out and struck her in the chest and caught her off guard. She went straight to the ground and fell on her right side. She felt an immediate and searing pain to her spine and hip and she screamed out in pain, " added Mrs East.

The victim was taken to the QEQM hospital in Margate, where doctors diagnosed a fractured pelvis.

The judge, in jailing Cook - who has a previous conviction for a glass attack five years ago - told her: "You embarked on a foul-mouthed and expletive-ridden verbal assault on the woman; apparently completely oblivious to the fact that your other children were in earshot.

"Your aggressive words were in themselves an over-reaction and when your victim responded by returning an insult that paled into insignificance when compared to the invective you had so freely and aggressively showered upon her, you violently shoved her to the ground.

"The woman you assaulted was more than twice your age, and you pushed her with such violence and ferocity that she fell to the floor and sustained a fracture of her pelvis. The force of the blow you administered is illustrated by the fact you left a bruise imprint of your hand on her chest."

He said the effect of the attack on Mrs White was "frankly devastating", leaving her bed-ridden for "in considerable pain and her prognosis is not good.

"The emotional scars of this incident will remain with her for many years, if not the remainder of her life, " he added.