A WOMAN who kept a hammer in her handbag raised it above her head and ran towards fellow hotel residents with it after falling out with them.

Cerys Chamberlain, 31, was staying at a hotel in Cross Keys, Caerphilly, when she got into an argument with other guests last October.

Sophie Keegan, prosecuting, said: “In the early hours of the morning the defendant was at the Solus Strand Hotel where she was a resident.

“The security guard Jackson Holland called the police after Miss Chamberlain reported being bullied by residents into having a hammer in her handbag.

“She was taken back to her room but she promptly left again and then got into an argument with residents.

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“The defendant removed the hammer from her bag and ran towards Mr Holland and the residents raising the hammer above her head and shaking it at them.”

Chamberlain, of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to public disorder and a raft of other offences she committed later in December.

These involved spitting at a female police officer helping her when it was feared she had overdosed at a house in Aberdare and assaulting Christopher Watkins in Tredegar and threatening to burn his house down.

He had helped her and given her shelter, Cardiff Crown Court was told.

She admitted assaulting an emergency worker, assault by beating, public disorder, criminal damage and being in breach of a suspended prison sentence.

Stephen Thomas, mitigating, said his client was making “significant progress” after working with the Gwent Drug & Alcohol Service.

Her barrister added: “The root of her offending is excessive drinking and her addiction to alcohol has been the bane of her living a law-abiding lifestyle.”

Mr Thomas asked the court to take into account his client’s guilty pleas and the fact that she had not committed any further offences since Christmas time.

The judge, Recorder Paul Hobson, told Chamberlain: “I have to sentence you for a number of offences committed late last year.

“Unfortunately this common thread runs through all of them, that of your aggressive and selfish behaviour when you are drunk.

“I say selfish for a particular reason because you seem to display aggression to anyone unfortunate to assist you.”

Chamberlain was jailed for 32 weeks.