When Sue Pearson heard a group of teenage girls swearing and shouting abuse on the street, she did what any right-minded mother would do. She went out and told them to be quiet.

So she was astonished when police turned up at her home and arrested her for assault instead of reprimanding the children.

An officer told the 45-year-old that one of the girls had accused Mrs Pearson of grabbing her arm and planned to press charges.

Despite her protestations of innocence, the mother of seven was held in a police cell for 16 hours, had her fingerprints and DNA taken and was eventually hauled before the courts.

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But on the first day of her trial, magistrates threw out the case after hearing there was no evidence Mrs Pearson had done anything wrong.

Yesterday she criticised the police and justice system for launching the prosecution against her.

"I did nothing wrong but was put through five months of hell simply because I dared to stand up to these yobs," she said.

"The police should be out arresting real criminals, not innocent people like myself. But it is the way this country is going. The rights of the victim are second to those of the perpetrators."

Mrs Pearson's ordeal began in October last year when she was visiting her sister, Shirley, 46, at her home in Bootle, Liverpool.

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