What does it take to be jailed? Smirking thug with 51 convictions walks free despite attacking two men with a champagne bottle… after judge says she’s a ‘caring mother’

Rebecca Bernard smashed a champagne bottle over one man's head then stabbed his friend in the bicep with the jagged edge of its broken neck

She is already notorious in Rochdale after previously being made subject to two Asbos with a record of 51 previous offences including violence

Rebecca Bernard has 51 previous convictions for crimes including violence and threatening behaviour.



She led an all-girl gang that brought terror to their town and has been the subject of two Asbos for making her elderly neighbours’ lives a misery.



You might have thought that when the 23-year-old attacked two innocent men in a nightclub with a champagne bottle, a custodial sentence would be inevitable.

Bernard (pictured with a male companion) leaving Bolton Crown Court: She gained notoriety in 2007 after she turned a quiet cul-de-sac into a 'hoodie zone'

But she walked free from court after a judge decided she was a good mother to her three young children.



In the latest drink-fuelled assault, Bernard smashed a bottle over one victim’s head then stabbed the other in the arm with its jagged neck.



A court heard she launched the attack because she believed, wrongly, that the men were laughing at her.

Ian Wilson, 49, suffered a head injury after being knocked unconscious in the assault and has been left scarred for life. His friend Paul Emery, 46, was left so traumatised he is now too frightened to go into his local town centre.



Bernard, who is notorious in her home town of Rochdale for her behaviour, suffers from schizophrenia and claims she heard voices in her head. On the night of the attack she had been drinking heavily, worsening her condition.



She had previously been given a non-custodial sentence for another bottle attack.



At Bolton Crown Court, Bernard wept as she was given a 12-month jail term suspended for 18 months after Judge Charles Bloom QC said the ‘dedication’ she showed to her three children aged six, three and two saved her from prison.



Bojangles nightclub in Rochdale: Bernard confronted two men on the dancefloor and attacked them with a champagne bottle in a booze-fuelled rampage

He told her: ‘You have a long-standing history of mental health issues and have elements of hallucinations and hearing voices, and depression. When you take alcohol your condition is exacerbated.

‘You provide a very high standard of care for your children and there will be huge damage which will be caused to your children by having their mother taken away from them.’

Ladette: Rebecca Bernard, from Rochdale, pictured in 2007

Bernard gained notoriety in 2007 after she and her all-girl gang turned their quiet cul-de-sac into a ‘hoodie zone’.



Then aged 18, she subjected pensioners to six months of hell after she moved into their street and kept them awake with all-night parties.



Housing bosses were inundated with complaints and later won an anti-social behaviour order over Bernard’s bullying.



After the teenager refused to curb her antics, she was issued with a second Asbo under which she was banned from communicating with any neighbour and from mixing with her gang members.



The order expired in 2010 but the latest incident occurred in April last year after the two victims went to Bojangles nightclub with a group of friends.



Prosecutor Patel Hanifa said Bernard believed the men were mocking her and picked up the bottle.



She then ran towards Mr Wilson on the dance floor and hit him over the head. Mr Wilson fell to the floor unconscious.



Bernard then brandished the broken neck of the bottle and ‘thrashed’ it about, causing Mr Emery to be stabbed in the bicep.



In a victim impact statement read to the court, Mr Wilson said: ‘In physical terms I have a permanent scar on the back of my head. But the real scar is mentally. I have been a nervous wreck over the past few months.’



Bernard admitted assault and malicious wounding.

