Joanne Higgs given 15 week suspended sentence after attacks on teenage girls

Joanne Higgs, 33, from Middleton, has been given a 15 week suspended sentence, suspended for 12 months, and has been ordered to pay £250 to each victim in compensation after she was found guilty of two counts of assault. She has also been ordered to pay costs of £650 and a victim surcharge of £80.

Higgs, a mum of three, punched and threw two schoolgirls to the ground with two male attackers in Kirkway, Middleton on 1 April 2014 after she suspected one of them had upset her daughter.

Bury and Rochdale Magistrates Court heard that Higgs snapped after a playground dispute occurred involving her teenage daughter.

On the evening of the attack, a group of teenage girls had thrown eggs at Higgs’ house on Wade Street, Middleton.

She then chased Lilly Hulse, 13, who she suspected of upsetting her daughter, along Kirkway, where she had run to a group of youngsters outside of a corner shop.

As Higgs started screaming at the 13-year-old, 15-year-old Dominique Nash tried to intervene before Higgs turned on her.

A car then pulled up and two men known to Higgs joined in with the attack.

Both girls were repeatedly punched in the head and thrown to the floor. They were later taken to hospital with bruising to their faces and bodies.

Higgs pleaded not guilty to the assaults.