A DALMUIR woman has been caged for carrying out a terrifying robbery on a man while she was armed with a knife and a hammer.

Ashleigh Hamilton left her victim badly injured after hitting him on the head and body with the hammer in the attack.

The 20-year-old stole a games console and controller, a mobile phone, a wireless router and a rucksack after she carried out the masked attack at a flat in Dumbarton Road in Clydebank.

Hamilton was detained for three years for the vicious assault when she appeared in court last week.

The Park Court resident had previously pleaded guilty to carrying out the attack on February 11 last year by brandishing a knife at her victim while her face was masked, hitting him on the head and body with a hammer to his severe injury, and robbing him of the five items.

Sentence was deferred until last Friday after social workers were asked to prepare a report on Hamilton, who was remanded in custody after pleading guilty to the charge on December 14.

After she was brought to Dumbarton Sheriff Court in handcuffs for sentencing, Hamilton’s solicitor tried without success to persuade Sheriff Simon Pender not to send his client to prison.

He said: “The report highlights that this is a young woman who had undergone a period of stability prior to this offence.

“She is assessed as being at medium risk of reoffending, and there is an intermittent link between her offending and alcohol misuse. 

“The author [of the social work report] says she could be safely managed in the community. The behaviours you are dealing with are sporadic in terms of previous convictions.

“It would be open to your Lordship to consider imposing an alternative to custody. She recognises that would not be an easy or soft option.”

But Sheriff Pender told Hamilton: “This is an extremely serious matter. It was a robbery with weapons and a serious assault on a man who you struck on the head with a hammer.

“It is simply by good fortune that the consequences were not very much more serious. “I am of the view that only a custodial sentence will be appropriate given the seriousness of the offence.”

Hamilton’s three-year detention was backdated to December 14.