A 16-year-old girl was released on bail pending a social inquiry report after she was charged with assaulting a Police officer.

In Magistrates? Court on Friday Camille Erica Leeann Chase, of Valley Heights Road in Devonshire, admitted to hitting a male Police officer across the ribs with a baseball bat as he tried to break up a fight between her father and her ex-boyfriend on North Shore Road on November 3.

She also admitted stabbing her ex-boyfriend, Leigh Swan, twice in the leg during the altercation.

Chase said she had done so because Swan attacked her.

Swan, one of the five men accused of holding up the Grotto Bay Hotel in April, was therefore unable to appear in Supreme Court the next day for arraignments to plead in that matter.

Chase pleaded guilty to hitting the plain-clothed Police officer with the bat, and apologised to the court. ?It was the heat of the moment,? she said.

Defence counsel Leo Mills asked Acting Senior Magistrate Carlisle Greaves for some leniency in the matter.

He said Chase had already spent some time in a prison cell due to the incident and, ?her bad judgement got the better of her?.

However, Mr. Greaves replied: ?If we, the courts don?t protect the Police who is going to protect them??

Police in Bermuda are soft, he said, because they are afraid of a backlash. ?I see Police backing down on the street. I don?t like that.

?We have to give them some protection because if we don?t give them any they (criminals) are coming for us next.

?Police in Bermuda wear shoes. They should wear boots.?

Mr. Greaves ordered a social inquiry report in the matter and bailed Chase for $500 with a surety. ?Hopefully that will tell me something about why you behave the way you behaved,? he said.