by Keith Hunt and Harry Low

dartfordmessenger@thekmgroup.co.uk

Frustrated because no action was being taken over her son being bullied at school, a mother resorted to extreme measures.

Natasha Haley armed herself with a baseball bat and threatened the teenage suspects on a school bus.

The 30-year-old single mum-of-four ended up in the dock at Maidstone Crown Court facing a possible jail sentence.

But a judge said although she had been "incredibly stupid", he was not going to deprive her children of their mother by sending her to prison.

"i should never have got on the bus with the baseball bat"

speaking exclusively to the dartford messenger, natasha haley said: "the people who beat my son up should never have been allowed on the bus.

"the driver smiled at me and said nothing as he thought i was within my rights.

"i should never have got on the bus with the baseball bat. i should have gone to the parents' house and spoken to them.

"but the punishment i've got is unfair.

"not one parent i know would accept [their son being beaten up]. i do not feel like i am wrong because i feel like i had to do something to stop my son being bullied.

"i would never touch a child. i'd never dream of it in a million years."

Mr Recorder James Mulholland QC had been shown film of the incident caught on security cameras on the bus.

He heard how Haley, of Howard Road, Dartford, acted on November 29 last year over her 11-year-old son being bullied at Wilmington Academy.

When arrested, she said: "My son is getting bullied at school and it is not nice. I got on the bus to stop them.

"I took the baseball bat because I thought I might get rushed."

Michael Smalley, defending, said Haley had tried contacting the school and the police without any success.

She had suffered domestic abuse while living in London and had moved to Dartford.

Mr Smalley said Haley's son was the victim of a group assault on the school bus at the beginning of November and it was reported to the police.

"He was upset and reluctant to go back to school," said Mr Smalley. "She said he had to go to school. He went back and was the victim of a robbery in one of the classrooms.

"She informed the school. As a result of that incident, she felt nothing would be done. There was some bullying and name calling. Then comes two unpleasant incidents on the bus."

Mr Smalley said of Haley, who admitted affray: "She accepts she went over the top. She has remorse and regret. She says she was stupid."

Her son had since left Wilmington Academy and was settled at a new school.

Suspending six months imprisonment for 12 months and ordering 150 hours unpaid work and a curfew, Record Mulholland said he sympathised over the "horrific" bullying but Haley had "gone off the scale".

He added: "It is so far removed from what one would hope a parent would do."

Mark Poulter, principal at Wilmington Academy, said: "It's not normal behaviour for a parent to take it into their own hands. I just feel sorry for her that she was not able to discuss the issue with the school.

"The first I knew about it was when we phoned police to alert them [about Miss Hayey being on the bus].

"It was not something that was serious enough to get to my office. To be honest I think it was a dispute between two little year sevens."

For more on this story, pick up a copy of this week's Dartford Messenger, out today.