A court heard it was the third time homeless Kelly Martin, 43, relieved herself at the monument in two years. She is pictured here outside Basildon Crown Court on July 4 last year in relation to her second offence
A jobless mother-of-five has been jailed after being caught urinating at a war memorial for the third time in two years.
Kelly Martin, 43, drunkenly relieved herself on her boyfriend John Hicks at the monument in Grays, Essex, on October 5, a court heard.
The latest incident, for which she was jailed for seven months, happened days after she also told an officer ‘I said I needed a ****’ before weeing outside a police station in Essex.
As a prosecutor described her vile actions to Basildon Magistrates Court she yelled, ‘Yeah, yeah. Apparently I do it every week.’
The court heard she had first urinated on the same memorial when it was still covered in Remembrance poppy wreaths last April.
She did it again in front of horrified shoppers while out on bail one day before the 100th anniversary of the start of the battle of the Somme in June 2016.
Prosecutor Ashley Petchey told Basildon Magistrates’ Court: ‘Officers were called to reports of drunken behaviour. They identified the defendant and Mr Hicks.
‘The defendant was seen squatting and urinating on Mr Hicks on the war memorial.
‘She was very intoxicated and holding a can of extra-strength lager.’
He added: ‘The only times she stops committing offences is when she’s in prison or remanded in custody.’
Martin appeared via videolink from Peterborough Prison where she was held for a string of offences.
The court heard shop security guard spotted Mr Hicks pushing a shopping trolley with her in it on April 4.
Mr Petchey said: ‘Both had been drinking in the High Street. She was spreading her legs while being pushed in the trolley. The security guard, Mr Webb, heard her say something vulgar.
‘He said shoppers were disturbed by this.’
Police were called after Mr Webb stopped her entering the shop clutching a can of cider due to a life-time ban, JPS heard.
Pictured is the first time Kelly Martin urinated on the war memorial in Grays Essex, in video footage taken on April 4
She was ordered to pay £115 compensation to the guard after she unleashed a flurry of ineffective kicks at the scene.
The court heard police were called to her and Mr Hicks abusing another man in Grays on May 11 and when they were fondling each other outside a Marks & Spencer in Thurrock, Essex, four days later.
Mr Petchey said: ‘The couple were being abusive. They had been placing themselves in sexual act positions, while fully clothed, in front of other customers.’
The court heard a small amount of cannabis was later found on Martin when she was searched at a police station.
Martin was convicted of exposure and criminal damage on May 22, for which she was sentenced to three months in prison at Basildon Crown Court in June.
But she was free by September 29, when she walked into Grays police station, in Brooke Road.
Mr Petchey said: ‘She entered the police station and asked to use the toilet.
‘The PC has advised her there are no toilets at the police station and she replied: ‘Well I will go and pee out the front of the station then.’
‘The officer has gone outside after her and found her in the squatting position urinating on the concrete.
‘He said: ‘What are you doing?’ She replied: ‘I told you I needed a ****’.’
The most serious offence took place on October 5, at the war memorial in Grays High Street, again with Mr Hicks.
Martin was jailed for seven months in September last year for urinating on the same memorial in April 2016, when it was still covered in Remembrance poppy wreaths.
She did it again in front of horrified shoppers while out on bail last June, just one day before the 100th anniversary of the start of the battle of the Somme.
At the time, Judge John Lodge told her: ‘Inevitably war memorials were constructed at the centre of towns and villages so that on a daily basis people could be reminded of the sacrifices made by people who died.
Martin urinated on the memorial in Grays, Essex,(pictured in a file photo) while out on bail last June, just one day before the 100th anniversary of the start of the battle of the Somme
‘People use them as a place around which they congregate and that’s not wrong, but when people take that step further and abuse them by urinating on them that’s a matter the court needs to take very seriously indeed.’
Penny Simons, mitigating, said the latest offences ‘speak for themselves’.
She said: ‘Miss Martin has had a difficult background. At the moment she is in prison and doing very well, but the problem is when she’s released she has nowhere to go.
‘She does have children but she sees them occasionally. There is no place for her to stay. She’s been homeless now for about two-and-a-half years.
‘Mr Hicks is her colleague and her friend and occasionally she does stay with him.’
Martin admitted two counts of outraging public decency, assault, using threatening behaviour, being drunk and disorderly and possession of cannabis.
She was jailed for a total of seven months for the two outraging public decency offences and two months for the assault, to run concurrently.
There were no further punishments for the other offences apart from the £115 compensation to the security guard.