A WOMAN who carried out a "wholly unprovoked" attack on a New Year's reveller has been placed on a tag.

Corrie Johnston attacked a woman on a Dunfermline street and later assaulted two police officers.

Sheriff Charles Macnair said he was "just prepared" to give her a non-custodial sentence when she appeared for sentencing at Dunfermline Sheriff Court on Wednesday.

Johnston, 28, whose address on court papers was given as Blair Drive, Dunfermline, but in court was read out as Tyrwhitt Place in Rosyth, had previously admitted that on January 1, at Blair Drive, she assaulted a woman by striking her on the leg, seizing her by the hair and pulling her to the ground, struggling violently with her and punching and kicking her on the head and body, all to her injury.

At a house in Blair Drive, she assaulted a police officer by biting her on the body and spitting on her body to her injury and also assaulted another officer by spitting at him.

Depute fiscal Laura McManus said three women were returning home after a night out in Dunfermline shortly before 2am.

Johnston was walking in the opposite direction alone and had been drinking. She said to one of them: "Where are you going?" and was told: "Nowhere you need to be" before the three witnesses continued on their way.

"Without any warning, the accused went behind one of the women and tried to trip her up," Ms McManus told the court. "She grabbed her by the hair, pulled her to the ground, kicking and punching her to the body. She then sat on the ground with her hands up pleading for her to stop."

Police officers attended at Johnston's partner's house at about 4am. They noticed she had a large swollen lump on the side of her head. The accused stated she had been out and had a fight with another female at the bottom of the road but she was unable to provide any other details.

After being told by their control room that an assault had taken place earlier and the female responsible had been wearing a white top with stripes, the officers spotted clothing of that description lying on the floor.

Johnston became aggressive towards the officers and bit one of them on the hand, tearing a latex glove and leaving a red mark. She spat on the same female officer and later spat at a male officer while she was being restrained.

Solicitor Edward Cadden said his client was under the influence of alcohol and her memory of the event was limited.

He added: "She accepts full responsibility for what happened and has a degree of insight. She realises when she drinks alcohol, incidents like this often take place.

"On the night in question, she chose to drink and chose to go outside and this incident happened."

Sheriff Charles Macnair said it had been a "wholly unprovoked assault" by Johnston.

"The assault included kicks to the head and any assault which involves a kick to the head is particularly serious because the injuries, if you kick someone to the head, are wholly unpredictable," he said.

"It can be minor, it can be serious, it can be fatal. You then proceeded to assault two police officers. One by biting and spitting on her and the other by spitting. Any assault on police officers is serious and spitting on police officers is again particularly serious."

He placed her on a community payback order with supervision for two years and a requirement to undertake alcohol counselling. He also ordered her to do 270 hours of unpaid work within six months and pay £750 in compensation to the assault victim and £250 and £200 to the police officers who she had assaulted.

He also placed her on a restriction of liberty order for eight months.