Woman threw cans at Cheltenham shoppers then 'urinated in the street' – again
Summary
A woman who urinated in front of shocked shoppers in Cheltenham twice in 17 months has been issued with a fine. Abbigayle Cutts could have been jailed for up to six months after last year repeating an offence she first committed in 2024. But after hearing that the 45-year-old has complex needs, magistrates gave her a 12-month community order and a £239 fine.
Details
At her sentencing on Friday, June 26, Cutts responded by asking if the court could take the money from her PIP benefit payment. The magistrates told her this would be looked into. It comes two years after the same court fined her £307 and gave her a 12-month community order for claiming more than £7,500 in benefits despite being in full-time work.
Cutts’ outrageous behaviour first happened in the town’s High Street on March 4, 2024 . She pulled her trousers down and squatted in the middle of the road, just a few yards from Primark. She denied committing an act of outraging public decency, claiming she must have been sleepwalking, but was convicted and given a two-day community order and an £85 fine.
But she then did it again, outside the Regent Arcade shopping centre, on October 17 last year, Cheltenham Magistrates’ Court heard. Prosecuting, Sue Gethin said the incident began at about 3.30pm in the arcade’s Ernest Jones shop when Cutts started shouting – saying that she wanted to see her sister. Cutts, who had been drinking alcohol, was asked to leave and security was called.
She left the arcade and, in Ormond Place, threw cans at members of the public as well as gesturing at her groin. Ms Gethin said: “She pulled her trousers down and urinated in the street in front of members of the public.” She added that Cutts shoved a woman in the chest and spat on her before the police arrested her. Cutts, who admitted outraging public decency and also assault, was defended by David Brown.
He said: “Miss Cutts has some quite complex emotional and psychological needs. It’s fair to say that on this day she had a very heightened sense of anxiety. “She has little memory of what happened.” He added that she felt she had been poorly treated but realised that urinating in public had been “wholly inappropriate”.
Mr Brown continued: “She is a lady who needs some extra help and wants it. I think she was struggling on the day in question.” As well as the 12-month community order and £239 fine, magistrates gave Cutts a 12-month mental health treatment requirement and a requirement to do up to 10 days of rehabilitation activity.
They warned her that she must work with the probation service and failing to comply with the requirements could lead to her being sent to prison.
Report source: Gloucestershire Live