Playground incident mum found guilty

A second woman is charged but acquitted of same offence at Newbury school

A woman has been found guilty of threatening behaviour following a fracas in a Newbury school playground.

A second mother was cleared of the same offence.

The incident, which happened in the playground at Robert Sandilands Primary School, Digby Road, in July last year, led to five parents being banned from the premises.

Shocked pupils screamed and teachers raced to intervene during the altercation, which broke out while parents were waiting to pick up their children after school.

Thames Valley Police subsequently confirmed that officers were investigating a number of allegations.

The then headteacher Richard Blofeld imposed the ban after interviewing a teacher and one of the mothers involved.

He followed up with a letter that confirmed the ban would remain until the end of the academic year.

West Berkshire Council spokeswoman Peta Stoddart-Crompton said at the time: “The headteacher has taken appropriate, and proportionate, action to address the issue, and to ensure that this kind of behaviour does not occur again.”

In the dock at Reading Magistrates’ Court on Friday, October 9, were Beverley Harrad, of Digby Road, Newbury, and Lucy Marie Poskitt, of Burchell Road, Newbury.

Both women denied using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour towards each other that was intended to provoke violence or the fear of violence, on July 7, 2017.

Twenty-seven-year-old Ms Poskitt, who was defended by Simon Grant, was cleared of the charge following a trial.

But Ms Harrard, aged 32, was convicted. She was fined £120 and ordered to pay £350 costs, plus a statutory victim services surcharge of £30.