A COMMUNITY order with unpaid work has been handed to a former Penrith woman who twice assaulted her ex-partner and subjected her to transphobic abuse.

Amy Winskill, 31, was drunk when she carried out both assaults following the breakdown of her relationship with the victim, Carlisle’s Rickergate court heard. She claimed she acted in self-defence but was convicted after a trial.

Winskill, now living at Springfield Road, Hexham, earlier pleaded guilty to making a malicious phone call to the woman and to a criminal damage offence when she “trashed” the victim’s room.

Prosecutor George Shelley said the defendant first came to the attention of the authorities at 2.48am on February 11. She called the ambulance service to say she was trying to jump into traffic at the Kemplay Bank roundabout near Penrith.

Police arrived and found her in “upset and agitated”. She told the officers she still wanted to throw herself into the traffic.

Concerned for her welfare, the police officers took her to the station and alerted a mental health team. While there, Winskill admitted she had argued with her partner at their Pategill Road home in Penrith, where she “trashed” the victim’s room.

It was later confirmed that she wrecked a mirror, a porcelain pot, a metal tin, and an Xbox Elite controller. It also emerged that she had phoned her former partner and made transphobic comments to her.

The background to the offending, said Mr Shelley, was the victim, a transgender female, had been living with Winskill in Penrith after they began their relationship in May, 2021. But that relationship broke down. Winskill assaulted the woman twice on June 18, at 3am and again at 5pm.

Describing the first assault, the victim said she was woken abruptly at 3am by banging on her front door. It was Winskill, who had been out drinking and could not find her house keys.

The woman described opening the door, but the defendant immediately kicked it hard and then burst into the house, screaming at her. Winskill told the woman she was “disgusting” and yelled more transphobic comments.

Retreating upstairs to “avoid the continuing verbal assault,” the woman described how Winskill followed her into a bedroom and punched her on the back of the head. This was followed by yet more transphobic abuse.

Fearing further violence, the woman left the house and slept in her car. The following day, she returned from work at 5pm and the two women talked about who should move out.

Still drunk and becoming distraught, Winskill repeated "transphobic slurs", saying she hated the woman as she attempted to punch her. The victim said: “She was still very intoxicated and had been drinking throughout the day.”

As she tried to leave, she said, Winskill grabbed her right arm, tightening her grip so hard she broke the skin.

Winskill accepted causing the injuries on the woman’s arm but claimed she was trying to defend herself. She denied hitting the woman. Steven Marsh, for Winskill, said she was recently diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

She was also taking antidepressants following an escalation in her mental health issues.

Magistrates noted the domestic context of the offending and how it involved the defendant using alcohol. The transphobic comments made by Winskill were an aggravating factor, said magistrates.

The defendant was given a one-year community order with 225 hours on unpaid work, £620 costs and a £95 victim surcharge.