Arriving at her home in Brea one afternoon a woman was greeted by the macabre scene of blood splattered all over the inside of the cottage and police officers everywhere.

Katharine March found blood dripping down the walls, on the way up the stairs, in her bedroom and through to the mattress on her bed, on her clothing in drawers, on carpets, rugs, a mantelpiece, curtains, and in a foot-wide pool on one floor.

Ms March, the cottage tenant, had to bleach and scrub the property for a long time after the attack by an unknown woman stranger, and was left scared that she might call there again.

At Truro Magistrates’ Court Catherine Amy Stapleton, 38, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to criminal damage to a glass door panel, and to property belonging to Ms March.

Alison May, for the CPS, said police were called to the address after neighbours reported a woman in the street screaming about a dead body.

“They found her inside one of the houses with blood on her and blood throughout the cottage.”

Ms March’s two dogs had been released from their kennel and one had wandered off into another road before it was retrieved. Both animals were shaking with fear.

Stapleton told the police she had been in some kind of trance in the cottage, having heard the dogs barking and believing they were telling her someone was dead in the house. She panicked, broke a glass door and went in.

Blood came from cuts she had to her hands and which had to be treated later in hospital.

She had previous convictions.

John Evans, her solicitor, said she had mental health problems including post traumatic stress disorder and only recently had been in the care of a mental health team. She had been very badly beaten by her former partner, and two days before the offence had had the very traumatic experience of having to go through the event all over again for the police. The following day she was threatened by friends of the partner, and on the day she went to Brea, not having eating for four days she had drunk a bottle of wine.

Mr Evans said she had never been to the house in Brea before and had no idea who lived there. But when she heard the dogs barking she felt there was something she had to do about it, that the dogs were telling her someone was dead.

”She was trying, in an incompetent way, to help”, he said.

She had been in a mental state of turmoil, and was desperately sorry and wanting to do anything to recompense Ms March.

Stapleton was given a restraining order for a year, told not to contact Ms March or go to her address, given a conditional discharge for 18 months, told to pay £100 compensation to Ms March, £200 to the property owner, and £100 costs and surcharge.