Woman In Court Accused Of Assaulting A Toddler

A woman's appeared in court accused of assaulting a toddler near a Pizza Hut restaurant in Falkirk. 25 year old Jodi Mitchell is accused of lifting up the child - a two-year old girl who cannot be identified for legal reasons - by her head. It is then alleged she shook her, by the body. It is further alleged that she dragged the child along the ground in the alleged assault in Falkirk's Central Retail Park on February 6th. She faces an alternative charge of using threatening and abusive behaviour. This alleges that she behaved in a manner likely to cause a reasonable person to suffer fear and alarm in that she shouted, swore and acted in an aggressive manner towards the little girl. Appearing from custody at Falkirk Sheriff Court, Mitchell, from Selkirk pleaded not guilty to both the principle charge and the alternative. Defence agent Hazel McGuinness asked that she should be released on bail. Sheriff Kenneth McGowan set trial for a date in May, with a preliminary hearing next month. He granted bail on the condition that Mitchell should not have any contact with the child named in the charge unless supervised by a person over 21. Mitchell was detained yesterday after police released CCTV pictures of an alleged incident involving a woman and a two-year-old child near Pizza Hut at the Central Retail Park, Falkirk