Mother and children hid as drug addict searched Shrewsbury home, court hears
A heroin addict whose tears duped a kind-hearted health worker to let her into her house left the family so terrified they barricaded themselves inside a bedroom.
Rebecca Emily O'Neil tried to take the victim's car keys and was so aggressive that her young son tried to leap from a first floor window and escape.
Telford Magistrates Court heard that O'Neil, 41, rapped the door and rang the bell at the house in Shrewsbury on the evening of November 18, 2019, and cried "help me".
She told the victim she had been "having an affair" and appeared to be so scared that she had wet herself.
But her behaviour switched from fearful to aggressive as she hunted for car keys. She told the victim's young children: "I'm not going to hurt you," and repeatedly called out: "Alexa, where are the keys?"
While there, O'Neil's phone rang.
The victim answered, but the man on the other end of the line said: "She'll be looking for her dealer."
The victim's husband was out for a run at the time. In her statement, the victim said: "I took my children upstairs. She said 'don't call the police'. I put a shelving unit across the door to barricade us in.
"I could hear her in the house saying 'Alexa, where's the keys?'
"She could hear what room we were in.
"The shelving unit hit me in the stomach. My son was so frightened he tried to climb out of a first floor window. She kept saying 'Alexa, where's the keys?'
Arrested
Eventually her husband came back and O'Neil was arrested.
When officers apprehended her, the driver's door of the victim's car was open.
The victim needed eight weeks off work to nurse achilles and back injuries as well as deal with the trauma, while both her children needed counselling.
O'Neil, of Whitchurch, Shropshire, pleaded guilty to assault causing actual bodily harm.
The court heard in mitigation that O'Neil, who was living in Shrewsbury at the time of the offences, was "mortified" when police told her what she had done the next day, and that she was the victim of "cuckooing" - when dealers take over a vulnerable addict's house as a drugs den.
It was also said that O'Neil had moved away and taken positive steps.
Magistrates sentenced her to an 18-month community order and 20 rehabilitation activity days.
She must also pay a fine of £750 and adhere to a 7pm to 7am curfew.
They also put a restraining order in place, banning her from contacting the victim.
