Two women who urinated in front of a Muslim family while they prayed in a park have walked free from court.

Natalie Richardson, 32, and Claire Farrell, 36, who were drunk at the time, shouted racist abuse and pulled down their underwear and squatted within metres of the Syrian family, which included two children aged eight and ten.

Another six children were in the company of the two drunken women on a Sunday afternoon in Central Park, Plymouth on August 16.

Richardson pushed a passer-by in the chest when he tried to intervene in the incident in the park.

The pair were handed suspended sentences at Plymouth Crown court by a judge who described their behaviour as “disgusting”.

Both women pleaded guilty to religiously-aggravated threatening and abusive behaviour, while Richardson also admitted the common assault of a witness to the incident.

View photos

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Recorder John Trevaskis said: “Nobody in civilised society could see your behaviour in any way justified or acceptable, not in the multi-cultural society in which we live.

“I describe it as disgusting.”

The Muslim family are from Syria but have lived in Plymouth for several years, the court heard. The mother, 38, is a teacher and the father, 46, is employed in a surgery.

When the family began their prayer in the direction of Mecca during a picnic near the park’s play area, the two women shouted abuse.

They then ran up a hill towards the family, before squatting down and urinating in front of them while shouting more negative comments.

Each woman was given a six-month jail term that was suspended for 12 months.

(Pictures: SWNS)