East Lothian dental nurse Shannon O'Donnell spat at pensioner, factory worker and police

A drunk dental nurse banged on the front door of a terrified pensioner claiming she needed help for her sick baby before assaulting the woman by spitting in her face.

Shannon O’Donnell woke the 72-year-old woman in the middle of the night and launched the disgusting attack after the pensioner had attempted to help her in November 2022.

O’Donnell, 23, then fled before going on to assault a factory worker and a police officer by spitting on them during a racist and homophobic tirade in Haddington, East Lothian.

Edinburgh Sheriff Court was told despite her claims the dental assistant does not have any children and has no memory of carrying out the assaults.

Shannon O’Donnell woke the 72-year-old woman in the middle of the night and launched the attack | Alexander Lawrie

Prosecutor Xander van der Scheer told the court Irene Reilly and her husband were asleep in bed when she heard banging on her front door at around 1.30am on November 22, 2022.

The fiscal said Mrs Reilly heard a woman outside shouting that she “needed help as she had a really sick baby” and opened the door to find O’Donnell sitting on her doorstep.

The court heard O’Donnell was in an “agitated” state and the pensioner had attempted to comfort her.

Mr van der Scheer said: “Mrs Reilly became quite cold as she was wearing only pyjamas and she stepped back in and started to shut the door.

“It was at this point the accused has jumped up and thrown herself at the door. She knocked Mrs Reilly back and as she fell the accused spat directly into her eye.

The shocked pensioner shouted for help and a neighbour rushed to her aid and the police were contacted.

O’Donnell, from Haddington, left the area and headed towards the nearby Pure Malt factory where she knocked on the front door and was met by nightshift worker Jamie Robertson at around 2am.

The court was told O’Donnell was “crying and barged past him” and after lying down on the floor she “began screaming she had a baby outside”.

The employee managed to get her up and was ushering her from the premises when the court was told “she spat at Mr Robertson as he tried to get her outside”.

O’Donnell was described as ‘drunk and abusive” and also slapped the worker on the head and pushed him on the body during the incident.

The dental nurse was arrested soon after and as she was being taken to a waiting police van she also spat in the face of PC Gillian Kellet.

Mr van der Scheer said O’Donnell shouted abuse at constables calling one “a blonde bitch” and was heard making comments including “f***ing poof”, “you brown c***” and “black c***”.

O’Donnell pleaded guilty to four offences on indictment when she appeared in the dock at the capital court last week. Defence agent Angela Craig said her client worked full time as a dental nurse and was deemed fit to appear in court after being psychiatrically assessed.

Ms Craig said: “She had been out in the evening socially and the next thing she remembered was being in a police cell.”

The solicitor told the court O’Donnell does not have any children and lives with her family near to the scene of the incidents. Sheriff Matthew Auchincloss deferred sentence for social work reports and a restriction of liberty order assessment to next month.