A BARRHEAD woman who attacked a shop worker by throwing bleach in his face and covering him in Shake ‘n’ Vac has been spared punishment – so she can try to turn her life around.

Taylor Sutherley assaulted William MacKay after being told to leave the store where he works.

Paisley Sheriff Court heard she “sprayed” bleach on Mr MacKay, causing it to hit his neck and back and land in his eye, before grabbing a tub of Shake ‘n’ Vac and pouring the cleaning product on him.

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Sutherley also hurled a can of juice at her victim, striking him on the back, during the shocking incident at the Poundstretcher store in Barrhead.

The details first emerged in January when she appeared in court for a pre-trial hearing.

Sutherley, of John Street, pleaded guilty to three charges in exchange for three others being dropped.

She admitted assaulting Mr MacKay and his colleague Aiden King at the store on May 30 last year, as well as assaulting Ahmed Altaf and Farooq Sheikh at another shop in Barrhead on March 24 last year.

Charges that she had behaved in a threatening or abusive way, assaulted another shop worker and stolen a box of crisps from a Tesco store in the town in May 2018 were dropped.

Procurator fiscal depute Keri Marshall said the attack on the Poundstretcher workers took place at about 12.30pm on the day in question.

It was stated that Sutherley was asked to leave the store but refused and began throwing cans of juice around.

Ms Marshall added: “The witness MacKay was struck on the back and the accused then took hold of the bleach and sprayed the bleach at the witness MacKay, coming into contact with his face, neck, back and eye.

“She then took a tub of Shake ‘n’ Vac and poured the contents onto the witness MacKay.”

The court heard the earlier attack on Mr Altaf and Mr Sheik started with Sutherley stealing a bar of chocolate and ended with her threatening them with scissors, punching one of them and trying to hit the other with the weapon.

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It was stated that Sutherley had been struggling with drug and solvent abuse at the time of the offences but had since been making an effort to turn her life around after being placed on a Community Payback Order (CPO) in another case.

Sheriff Tom McCartney had deferred sentence for three months for her to be of good behaviour and she returned to the dock last week to learn her fate.

Defence solicitor Tony Callahan said: "She has had quite significant health issues which have led to her suffering psychologically.

"She relapsed, for a very brief period, to significant drug misuse."

After hearing that Sutherley had been of good behaviour, despite her difficulties, Sheriff McCartney opted not to sentence her – meaning she went unpunished – but said she could still be jailed.

As he told her to stay out of trouble for six weeks, he added: "The nature of the offence is such that it would almost always result in a substantial period of detention or imprisonment but I'm going to defer sentence for you to be of good behaviour.

"You have to be aware that a substantial period of detention is still a very real possibility in respect of this matter but, if you fully comply with the order to which you are subject and continue to be of good behaviour, this may cause the court to conclude that an alternative disposal could be imposed."

Sutherley is now set to learn her fate next month.