There was laughter inside the court when a woman who bit a policeman on his finger claimed she did so because she was hungry.

“A bite him cuz me did hungry. A not going tell no lie, a telling the truth,” Carlene Ferguson said following her guilty plea on Tuesday to assaulting the policeman.

“A so people act when dem hungry,” Parish Judge Maxine Ellis remarked after hearing Ferguson's reason.

The court heard that the policeman was responding to a domestic dispute at her home in Rollington Town, Kingston, on March 27 when Ferguson became boisterous and assaulted the cop, who was trying to hold her.

Ferguson, however, told Judge Ellis that she was sorry and explained why she attacked the policeman.

She told the court that before the incident her husband went to the police and reported that she had used a piece of wood to hit her son.

“Him come inna de night and say me thief him $5,000 and nuh left nothing inna the house fi eat fi five days,” she also reported.

Ferguson told the court that she was really upset at the accusations levied by her husband, as they were not true.

Additionally, she said she was further angered by her husband who called her “dutty gal” when the police arrived.

“The truth is because me did hungry and him go call police, so when the police a try grab me, him hand go inna me mouth. Me neva meant to bite him,” she said.

The woman then told the court that she is a good mother who is always hustling for her children and has never done anything to harm them.

But the judge told her that the case was not about that but was about her treatment of the policeman.

The judge then asked Ferguson if she had money to compensate the policeman for his medical bill and she said she had brought $10,000, which was handed over to the victim.

Judge Ellis, before sentencing Ferguson to six months in prison which was suspended for a year, told her that she had no respect for law enforcement.

“They don't put police on the front line for people to war them; they are there to protect, reassure and serve,” Ellis said.