A "stressed" woman who punched a police car window twice said she was surprised when it smashed.

Kate Chapman, 56, of Downs View, Royal Wootton Bassett, pleaded guilty to criminal damage at Swindon Magistrates' Court on July 16.

Chapman was outside Great Western Hospital on January 31 and said she punched the rear window of a parked police car twice because she ‘felt stressed’.

Stephen Collins, defending, said Chapman takes medication for several health conditions, causing her to "behave in erratic ways" and "often get angry when in hospital".

He added: “She didn’t realise it would break and accepts that it did.

“She didn’t know why she did it and didn’t intend for it to break and was surprised when it smashed.”

After punching the car window, Chapman, who has three previous convictions for criminal damage and has another interview for damage to a shop window later this week, was identified by a security guard when CCTV was checked.

The magistrate told her: “You can’t go around damaging things. You’re in a difficult situation medically, I’m fully sympathetic to that, but if everyone on medication went around smashing things up, we wouldn’t be able to function as a society.”

She was fined £100 and an additional £107 to cover the repair costs.