A woman attacked her mother and threatened to kill her after arriving at her home in, "a highly agitated" state following a night out, a court heard.

Chelsea Sellars turned up at her mother’s address “under the influence of substances” and was very vocal, so she was advised to keep her voice down and to go home, “to get some sleep”.

Durham Crown Court was told Sellars complained of not being “allowed a life” and she refused to leave, behaving in an aggressive manner throughout to her mother, who had only recently undergone hospital surgery.

Dr Chris Wood, prosecuting, said Sellars gritted her teeth and clenched her fists before punching her mother several times to the head and facial area, despite the victim trying to protect herself with her arms.

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Sellars then squeezed her mother’s neck tightly causing her to struggle to breathe and shouted that she would kill her, and she hoped she would die of cancer.

Dr Wood said Sellars continued to lash out at her mother, who fell backwards and then made a dash for the downstairs bathroom where she locked herself in, fearing her daughter would kill her.

Sellars kicked at the bathroom door and repeated her threats to kill her mother, who took the opportunity to call for the police.

As she was doing so she could hear her daughter smashing the television set in the living room, which cost her £300 to replace.

Police arrived and arrested Sellars, while also attending to the injuries of her mother.

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The 31-year-old defendant, of Keir Hardie Terrace, Shotton Colliery, admitted charges of intentional strangulation, two of common assault, plus one of criminal damage, arising from the incident on January 29.

Dr Wood said Sellars has only two previous convictions, the last in 2015 for battery.

He told the court that as the victim still wants some contact with her daughter in future there would be no application for the imposition of a restraining order.

At the outset of his mitigation, Martin Towers, representing Sellars, told the court: "It’s an appalling incident. I can’t mitigate that.

“She’s not heavily convicted, and it can be said to have been an out of character incident, which begs the question: ‘Why?’

“We have a woman in her 30s, with no more than conditional discharges in the past.

"Why did this terrible incident happen that morning?”

Mr Towers said the defendant had been out with friends mourning the loss of a mutual friend who died suddenly in bed three days earlier.

She had also received a call and messages from a former partner which Mr Towers said, in the defendants’ own words, “tortured her”.

“So, when she got back she was in an emotional, over-wrought state and completely snapped in a way that was utterly appalling.

“She’s had the good sense to enter guilty pleas, albeit late in the day.”

Mr Towers said the defendant had struggled to cope with the, “stresses of life”, and added that she would benefit from an input from the Probation Service.

Judge James Adkin said the defendant had arrived at her mother’s home, “highly intoxicated and highly agitated”.

The judge said due to Sellars' behaviour her mother had to take “refuge in the bathroom” until police arrived.

Judge Adkin said he partly believed she should serve an immediate prison sentence for her actions that night.

“It would be richly deserved, but you don’t present a significant risk.”

He said it would allow him to pass a 13-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, during which Sellars must complete 50 days’ rehabilitation activity work with the Probation Service and observe an alcohol abstinence and monitoring programme for 80 days.

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Judge Adkin told her: “It may be an opportunity to reflect on the awfulness of this episode.

“Stay out of trouble and comply with the abstinence and monitoring requirements.

“But, if you don’t and you commit further offences, or breach the order in any way, we will meet again and I will send you to prison.”