A CARLISLE family grieving the loss of a 16-year-old son were woken in the early hours by a neighbour who was lobbing things at their windows and yelling abuse.

Just two days after Reuben Price was laid to rest by his heartbroken family, 28-year-old Kathleen Knaggs stood outside his family’s Borland Avenue home in Botcherby, screaming abuse at his mother Cheryl Price and hurling objects at her windows, Carlisle’s Rickergate Magistrates’ Court heard.

But Knaggs was yesterday freed by a district judge after her defence lawyer said she was suffering mental health problems.

Knaggs, who is being thrown out of her Carlisle home by her landlord, had earlier admitted three offences: using threatening behaviour with intent to cause Mrs Price alarm or distress; assaulting a police officer and resisting a police constable.

George Shelley, prosecuting, said the alarm was raised at 3am on December 17 last year when Mrs Price called the police to report that Knaggs was outside her home “screaming and chucking things at the windows.”

“She had just lost her son Reuben in a high-profile road traffic collision," said Mr Shelley.

"Officers arrived at the scene and Miss Knaggs continued to be verbally abusive towards Mrs Price and the officers, using obscene language.”

When one constable tried to detain Knaggs, she resisted, flailing her arms and using offensive language.

As she was being removed from a police van at the city’s Durranhill Police HQ, she made several attempts to headbutt one police officer. She tried again while standing at the custody desk, flinging back her head towards an officer.

When interviewed, she denied any wrongdoing, though did admit resisting the officer in Botcherby.

Knaggs had 11 previous offences on her record – the most recent being in April, 2020, when she drunkenly assaulted two police officers. She slapped and punched one and spat at two officers, claiming she had coronavirus and was HIV positive.

In mitigation, defence lawyer Nick Kennon said: “She has mental health problems and is willing to work with the Probation Service.”

There was a “long back story” between those involved and Knaggs and Mrs Price would never agree, said Mr Kennon.

When released, Knaggs will spend a week with a relative of her partner in Carlisle and then find a tenancy in west Cumbria, said Mr Kennon.

District Judge John Temperley said Knaggs’ personal circumstances, combined with the four weeks she spent in custody, meant he could impose an 18-month community order.

It will include 25 rehabilitation activity days, so probation staff can work with her on her issues to prevent reoffending.

She was also fined £200 and told to pay £85 costs and a £95 victim surcharge.

There was no compensation award for Mrs Price.

Reuben Price died at the scene of the one-vehicle crash in Holywell Crescent on December 2 – a day before his 17th birthday.

In a moving tribute, Cheryl, 47, said: “People thought the world of him and nobody ever said a bad word about Reuben. They all loved him at college; all his teachers loved him and all his friends loved him. He never had a nasty bone in him.”