A neighbour's note about a Camborne woman's private life led to a 3am assault in which she had to be subdued with pepper spray.

Johanna Louise Gilmour decided to confront a man in a neighbouring flat after he put a note through her door which referred to her private life.

Johanna Louise Gilmour then rang police to say the neighbour, Peter Young, had assaulted her, but that call was followed by one from Mr Young alleging that Gilmour had assaulted him.

Officers arrived to find Gilmour had a small cut on her finger, and Mr Young had a cut to his lip and grazing on his right shin.

At Truro Magistrates’ Court Gilmour, 28, of Gwarder Place, Camborne, pleaded guilty to assaulting Mr Young on September 9.

Anita Kennett for the CPS said Gilmour had said Mr Young punched her in the face, but this was found not to be so. She also told the police that Mr Young was “all guns blazing” when she called on him, but Ms Kennett said that was not born out in evidence.

Gilmour, who had previous convictions for affray and assault in March, was represented by solicitor Charles Hulley, who said alcohol was the underlying cause of her offending.

He said on September 9 she had received a note from Mr Young, and went to confront him about it, and that confrontation had turned physical. Gilmour was drunk at the time.

Ms Kennett, who told the magistrates that Gilmour had pleaded to the assault on the full facts of a second offence of resisting a police officer, and this matter was discontinued by the prosecution.

The officer had responded to her call, and found her to be intoxicated and resistant to him when he tried to handcuff her. He had to use Captor spray on her and it took three officers to take her to the police van.

Gilmour was given an 18 month community order, put under curfew nightly for six weeks, and told to have alcohol treatment. She also had to pay £100 compensation to Mr Young and £170 in court costs and charges.