A 15-year-old girl charged with assaulting a woman carrying a child in her arms and who was described in court as 'the highest risk offender' in the North has been refused bail at Derry Magistrate's Court.

The girl, who cannot be identified due to her age, appeared charged before the Magistrate’s Court with 10 new offences including affray, disorderly in Altnagelvin Hospital, assault on police, assault on a female and stealing alcohol on March 27.

She appeared before the court in Derry on Monday.

A police officer told the court that at around 2pm on March 27 CCTV operators claimed to have identified the girl as being part of a couple who stole alcohol from Tesco.

Then at 7.30pm that same day she was accused of assaulting a female who was holding a child in her arms in the street outside a hotel on the Strand Road.

The defendant was alleged to have kicked the woman in the head during an assault that was said only to have ended when members of the public intervened.

The defendant told police that both she and her mother had been bitten during the course of the incident.

The court heard that the girl then told police she had taken 31 tablets and was brought to Altnagelvin Hospital in the Waterside where it is alleged that she became abusive and told one police officer that she was 'dead when I get these cuffs off'.

The teenager was also further alleged to have assaulted police, and at one stage she allegedly had to be restrained by three police officers.

Bail was opposed due to the risk of reoffending as the girl has 26 previous convictions, and the court was told that she has breached bail 23 times since last July.

The police officer said that there was a clear risk of reoffending and added that the defendant took up a lot of police time as there were 61 case files on her at just 15.

He described her as a risk to the public.

Bail was refused and the girl will appear at the next youth court in April.