A DRUNKEN pensioner who tried to clamber into a shopper s vehicle in a supermarket car park just days before assaulting a police officer has been given an eight-week suspended jail sentence. Audrey Gill, 61, – who has a series of previous convictions for

A DRUNKEN pensioner who tried to clamber into a shopper's vehicle in a supermarket car park just days before assaulting a police officer has been given an eight-week suspended jail sentence.

Audrey Gill, 61, - who has a series of previous convictions for drink related offences - had tried to climb into a car when its owners opened the doors in the Tesco car park at Ely.

Police were called to the scene, and found Gill sitting on the floor; she had to be helped to a police car and hurled abuse as she was moved.

Just 11 days later Gill caused a problem in the city again - she was found slumped in a doorway in Broad Street, and police were called to assist paramedics to deal with her.

"A bottle of vodka in her bag was two-thirds empty," prosecutor Laura Mardell explained to Ely magistrates. "She was barely able to stand without wobbling."

South African Gill shouted "You are blooding English and I know your face," before she was arrested.

"At the police van she tensed up, she started kicking backwards and struck a police sergeant on the shin," said Miss Mardell. "She was abusive and refused to get into the van. She went to punch the officer, he moved, and it glanced off his arm."

Gill, of Lantern Court, High Street, Ely, admitted using threatening or disorderly behaviour on May 15; and assaulting Sgt Sean MacLoughlin and being drunk and disorderly in Jubilee Gardens at Ely on May 26.

Mitigating, Adam Haselhurst said Gill had been drunk on both occasions. She had been trying to get a lift home when she tried to get into the car.

The assault on the police sergeant had been reckless, he said, Gill had kicked out because a previously dislocated shoulder had caused her pain.

"She is extremely remorseful and annoyed with herself," he added.

As a requirement of her suspended jail sentence, Gill was given a four month curfew, keeping her at home between 6pm and 6am.