An alcoholic struggling to cope with the death of her partner assaulted a policewoman who was called to her home to stop her making bogus 999 calls.

Linda Hennessy, 42, of Kennington Avenue, Bishopston, admitted assaulting an officer, damaging a police car by urinating inside it and making bogus calls to the ambulance service when she appeared before city magistrates yesterday.

Crown prosecutor May Li said Hennessy made five bogus calls to the ambulance service in one evening on October 23.

When she later made a further call to the service, police were called in to arrest her but she refused to co-operate and swore at officers.

Once Hennessy was handcuffed and inside a police car, she urinated on the back seat and dug her finger nails into an officer, drawing blood.

Nick Clough, defending, said she had been an alcoholic for 10 years and would drink when things were going badly in her life, and her boyfriend had died two days before. He said she bitterly regretted what she had done.

Magistrates bailed Hennessy to return to court on December 11 and asked for reports to be drawn up on her ahead of sentencing.