A DRUNKEN young woman punched and kicked two police officers as they were warning her mother for shouting abuse at them.

Charlene Morgan, aged 19, of Banker Street, Darcy Lever, admitted assaulting the police officers when she appeared before Bolton magistrates yesterday.

Radha Vaithianathar, prosecuting, told the court that PC Donna Burrows and PC Nigel Drinkwater were patrolling the town centre on April 15 as part of a high profile operation to curb drunken anti-social behaviour.

They were called to a disturbance involving around 20 people outside the Barracuda Bar in Bradshawgate, at about 3am.

Miss Vaithianathar said: "They heard the defendant shouting abuse at them. They spoke to the defendant's mother in relation to this and she was abusive and told them to leave her daughter alone."

The incident escalated and the two officers had to call for back-up.

Morgan told the officers to leave her mother and then punched PC Burrows hard in the face.

"The officer pushed her away, but she came back and kicked her in the shins. Then the other officer approached and she repeatedly kicked him in both of his shins," said Miss Vaithianathar. Both officers suffered bruising.

Peter Leather, defending, said that Morgan was of previous good character and had learned her lesson in terms of managing her drinking and her temper.

Joan Schofield, chairman of the bench, said: "There was gross disregard for police authority. You committed the offences under the influence of drink and there were actual injuries caused to police officers in the course of their duty."

Morgan was given a 12-month community order and was ordered to complete 240 hours of unpaid work in the community. She was also ordered to pay £633 in outstanding fines and compensation to the injured officers.