Mum stabbed boyfriend with high heel after knocking daughter unconscious

Police found Andrea Kelso outside a hotel in Newtownabbey in September last year – sitting in a parked car “in a distressed state”.

Their enquiries established that Kelso, her daughter Ashleigh and her boyfriend had been drinking and watching a boxing match when there was a verbal argument that turned violent.

A prosecution lawyer told the court sitting in Craigavon that a fourth person who was sober told cops that Kelso “assaulted her daughter by punching her to the head, biting her ear and pulling clumps of hair” from her head.

Unconscious for “three or four minutes,” Kelso then turned her attention to the boyfriend.

He was punched about the head and face and was left with a cut lip. Kelso then “took off her high heel shoe and hit him on the side of the head, causing a puncture wound.”

The court was told when Kelso was taken out of the parked car to be arrested, she lashed out at the officer, kicking him in the leg. But during interviews later that day, “she made full admissions and apologised.”

Kelso, from Main Street in Ballynure, took the charges to a contest to argue whether or not her daughter injuries amounted to actual bodily harm (ABH).

At the conclusion of the short hearing, the 52-year-old was convicted of ABH, common assault, assaulting police and using disorderly behaviour .

“There’s still certain tensions between the parties,” the prosecution lawyer told the court with the defence confirming that although “things have improved significantly….there’s been ongoing difficulties.”

Imposing a two year probation order, the judge warned Kelso that if she breached the order “you will be brought back and resentenced and that will end up with a sentence of imprisonment’’.