A WOMAN who repeatedly called the emergency services for help said she does so because she fears she will take her own life.

Magistrates found Jennifer Ramsay, of Sybil Street Carlisle, not guilty of one charge of calling the emergency services to cause annoyance, inconvenience and anxiety when she appeared at Carlisle’s magistrates’ court on Friday.

While the 40-year-old admitted making the calls and accepted they caused annoyance, she denied intending to cause such annoyance.

It is that lack of intent that magistrates felt could not be proved beyond reasonable doubt.

Her family say she should never have been brought before the court and that she was the "victim of a failed system."

The court heard that between December 14 and December 18 Miss Ramsay made a total of seven calls to 999 and the NHS 111 telephone service.

In most she said she intended to take her own life or felt unsafe, in that she might self harm. In one call she stated she feared she might be violent to the ambulance crew and in another, made from a telephone box, she claimed she was in a violent mood and was in possession of a weapon.

When asked why she makes the calls Miss Ramsay said: “At the time when I’m low, all I intend to do is take my life by whatever means it takes.

"It's just to get some help at that time, at that moment."

She called 999 on December 16, 11 minutes after the home treatment team were due to attend, saying she wanted to end her life. Asked about this call she said: “The minutes matter when I’m in a very low mood. I can do something on impulse and minutes make all the difference. They could be coming to a dead body or someone who is alive.”

After the trial her mother Jean Ramsay said: “It is what I wanted but - and it’s a big but - we are going out of here and, unless they can get the home treatment team in today, we have no support and we are back to square one.”

Magistrates also refused a criminal behaviour order application.