A Bristol mum of five who hit a 15-year-old girl with a baseball bat because she was staring at her in the street has avoided jail.

Susan Long, 39, of Saltmarsh Drive, Lawrence Weston, drove past the girl in Shirehampton High Street and stopped to ask her what she was looking at.

They argued and Long got the bat from the car. She punched the girl then swung the bat into her forehead and hit the back of her head as she tried to escape.

She turned to the girl's friend and made a threatening gesture with the bat.

The teenager was treated at hospital for a cut to her forehead and swelling at the back of her head.

Long was arrested and admitted one charge of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and one public order offence. A judge at Bristol Crown Court gave her a 12-month prison sentence, suspended for two years.

She was also given 240 hours of unpaid work and was ordered not to contact her victims, who cannot be identified for legal reasons.

Julian Howells, prosecuting, told how Long assaulted a 15-year-old schoolgirl and threatened another on the morning of July 11 last year.

He said the girls were in Shirehampton High Street when the defendant drove past and asked one girl what she was looking at.

The court heard that the pair then got into an argument and the defendant got out of her car armed with a baseball bat.

She was said to have punched the girl with her fist before swinging the bat around her head, striking her once to the left side of her forehead then once to the back of her head as she tried to escape.

Witnesses saw the schoolgirl bleeding from her left temple before Long turned to her friend and made a threatening gesture with her weapon.

She then left the scene as the girls' friends phoned for an ambulance but was later arrested.

Mr Howells said doctors found the victim of the assault had suffered a laceration and grazing to her left temple and had a swelling at the back of her head.

Caroline Harvey, defending, said her client was genuinely remorseful for what she had done and stated in a letter that she should have known better.

Bristol Crown Court judge Julian Lambert told Long he could give her a suspended prison sentence because she had children to care for and appeared genuinely sorry.

He said: "I believe you have seen how foolish you were on this occasion and you have expressed genuine remorse for what took place.

"Sometimes, however, sorry might not be enough."