A drunk woman spat, swore and fought with police so violently she had to be put in leg irons so they could arrest her, a court was told.

Wilma Dotsey was part of a group of people police suspected might have made off from a taxi without paying in the small hours of April 8.

For the prosecution, Michael Jelski said the 39-year-old was obviously drunk when they traced the group to a property on Snugborough Avenue in Union Mills.

’When told she was being arrested, she became volatile, clenching her fists, pulling her arms away,’ Mr Jelski said.

With the aid of reinforcements, he said police managed to get one handcuff on her but when they tried to attach the other, she unleashed a tirade of abuse, shouting and swearing.

She was ’taken to the floor’, Mr Jelski said, and restrained there writhing and kicking out before being disabled with leg restraints.

With both arms and legs restrained, she then resorted to spitting at police and yelling. Police had to hold her head to limit where she was able to spit, the court heard.

Once bundled into the back of the police van, her behaviour took on a new dimension as she pulled down her trousers and underwear, Mr Jelski said.

Next, she produced a cigarette lighter and ignited paper stuffed into the crack of the van door. Police had to stop the van and when they tried to open the cage in the back, Dotsey was described as ’snarling, gnashing her teeth in a biting motion and standing in a boxer’s stance’. She had to be doused in pepper spray before police could get near enough to remove the burnt paper from the van door, the court was told.

Dotsey, of Cushag Road in Douglas, admitted resisting the police on April 8. An additional charge of obstructing the police was formally withdrawn by the prosecution.

Representing her, defence advocate, Roger Kane, told the court his client was pleading guilty on the understanding that none of her kicks had deliberately made contact with anyone.

’The basis of plea is that she was simply flailing,’ he said.

’If she did make contact with the police it was done recklessly, not deliberately. Any kick was accidental. The charge is resisting arrest, not assaulting the police,’ he told the court.

Magistrates’ chairman Alan Gelling agreed to adjourn the case pending sentencing so an all options social enquiry report could be completed on the defendant by the probation service.

She was bailed to reappear in court on August 17 for sentencing.

In the meantime, she must live at her home address, contact the probation service and co-operate with making the report.