A notorious pensioner who has breached her anti-social behaviour order (ASBO) dozens of times in the past two years has been jailed after admitting carrying out a bizarre broom attack.
Josephine Eze, aged 63, of no fixed abode, was jailed for 12 months at Northampton Crown Court today for two breaches in January, including one incident in which she threatened a McDonald’s manager with a broom.
Eze, who is known for her nuisance behaviour and drunkenness, was issued with an ASBO in 2010.
The five-year-order bans her from entering areas of Northampton town centre, forbids her from being drunk in a public place and from using abusive words or language.
However, on January 4, this year, she was seen in Greyfriars Bus Station at around 4.20pm, when she began to insult members of the public, all of whom were black or Asian.
She shouted “why don’t you get out of this country”, how she was “treated like a second class citizens”, as well as hurling expletives and offensive racial terms at the victims.
Just nine days later she targeted a member of staff in McDonald’s, in The Drapery, an area of the town she is banned from, this time racially abusing a female manager at the fast-food chain. Eze, dubbed “ASBO granny”, picked up a broom and threatened the victim.
Judge Richard Bray rejected a plea to scrap homeless Eze’s ASBO, because she could not stick it, sentencing her to 12 months in total. Eze refused to attend the hearing.
Sentencing her in her absence, he said: “She has an appalling record of anti-social behaviour and for breaches. The magistrates have tried to deal with her in every possible way but she has not responded.”