A woman from County Durham is to stand trial next year over alleged assaults on two nurses at an NHS hospital.

Maya Luna-Black is accused of common assaults on two female members of staff at a hospital in Peterborough, in north Cambridgeshire, on Thursday, May 26, this year.

The 45-year-old wheelchair user appeared in the case heard at Durham Crown Court today (Friday July 8), via video link from a court room at Newcastle Combined Court Centre, alongside her legal representative, Sophie Allinson, and prosecuting counsel, Alec Burns.

Such an arrangement was agreed as the 210-year-old court in Durham is considered difficult to access for wheelchair users.

Asked by Recorder Christopher Rose why the case was being heard at Durham, Miss Allinson said the initial hearing took place before magistrates’ in Peterborough and was transferred to the North East for the benefit of the defendant, who is from Seaham.

She has since appeared before magistrates in Peterlee, on June 10, where she indicated not guilty pleas to two counts of common assault on an emergency worker, the two nurses, plus a summary charge only that, without reasonable excuse, she caused a nuisance or a disturbance on NHS premises.

Only the two assault charges on an emergency worker were put to her at the crown court, to which she pleaded not guilty.

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A trial date for the case to be heard was agreed for May 22, next year, but Recorder Rose told her it was uncertain at the moment if that would be in Newcastle or in Peterborough.

Her only bail condition was to provide a contactable postal address, in Lawnside, Seaham.

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