District Judge Barney McElholm told Londonderry Magistrates Court that public provision was “a disgrace” and “a legacy of Thatcher and an ideological drive to dismantle mental health services”.

He was speaking during the trial of 34-year-old Naomi Graham, who admitted two charges of assaulting police officers in June.

Defence barrister Eoghain Devlin said there was a lack of appropriate care in the community for people like her with mental health difficulties.

Judge McElholm, imposing 12 months probation, said: “The criminal justice system is simply not equipped to deal with people like this.

“There is a hopeless deficiency in legislation and it seems all politicians do is jump up and down and complain we don’t sentence people to long enough and when they are told that will entail another prison being built they say we are sentencing too many.”