A PROSECUTOR who agreed to drop a drunk and disorderly charge and replace it with a breach of the peace eventually suggested magistrates may not even want to consider binding over the woman in the dock.

The U-turn came after Blackburn magistrates heard how battered wife Karen Bailey had fled to Blackburn to escape a violent relationship.

But she ended up in police cells after returning minutes late to her hostel type accommodation and finding herself locked out.

Scott Ainge, prosecuting, said police were called to the Islington Motel. Bailey, who was living at the hotel had been refused admission. She was in drink and refused to heed the police warnings to leave the area.

Deborah Morgan, defending, said Bailey had been homeless for the last three weeks after fleeing a violent relationship in her home town of Warrington.