King’s Lynn woman jailed following disturbance at Royal Mail delivery office

A Lynn woman has gone to prison after a disturbance at the town’s Royal Mail delivery office triggered a suspended sentence.

Cara Clarke, 33, had been given 12 weeks’ custody, suspended for one year, in June for assaulting an emergency worker.

On Thursday, appearing before Lynn Magistrates’ Court, she pleaded guilty to assaulting a woman three months later, on September 9.

Clarke and fellow defendant Emma Mortimer, 42, were among a group of people arguing outside the delivery office in Austin Fields.

The court heard the complainant waited for the group to move so she could pass by.

Anna Crayford, prosecuting, said Clarke barged her shoulder into the woman before an argument then developed during which Clarke was shouting and swearing.

She said spit went onto the complaint’s face before Mortimer swore at her.

The court was told the row then spilt into the sorting office with Mortimer cornering the complainant. A grapple broke out with hair pulling.

Miss Crayford added that a broken fingernail was found in the victim’s hair. Both defendants were subsequently identified and arrested by local police officers.

Clarke said in interview that it was she who had split the fight up.

Clarke pleaded guilty to common assault while Mortimer admitted assault by beating.

Solicitor Charlotte Winchester, mitigating for both defendants, said Clarke claims she was the one shoulder barged but accepted that saliva does come out of her mouth when she’s angry.

Miss Winchester said Mortimer, of Pinewood Avenue, Lowestoft, wasn’t initially involved in the row but became upset over a comment made about her brother.

Mortimer, who also admitted a separate assault on a security guard at Sainsbury’s at Vancouver Quarter, was fined £250 and ordered to pay £100 compensation to each victim.

Clarke, of Gaywood Road, had her suspended sentence activated, with the term reduced to six weeks.

She was given three weeks’ custody for the more recent assault, to run concurrently. She was also ordered to pay a £128 victim surcharge.