A Gold Coast woman who abused and assaulted an elderly man on a bus has narrowly avoided jail but been slammed as "deplorable" by a magistrate and heckled outside court.
Larna Watmough, 21, pleaded guilty to serious assault of a person over 60 and public nuisance during an appearance in Southport Magistrates Court.
Magistrate Gary Finger didn't hold back in condemning Watmough's behaviour, labelling her and her co-accused as "louts" and "idiots".
"You attacked a defenceless old man with impaired vision ... you certainly must be proud of yourself," he said.
"Your response to his comment can only be described as appalling.
"Your actions were deplorable. To say they were deplorable is an understatement."
Watmough was given a two-month prison sentence, wholly suspended for 18 months, for the assault and ordered to pay $500 in compensation.
She also received a 12-month probation for the public nuisance charge.
Watmough and another woman stirred national outrage in February when footage went viral of the pair attacking 77-year-old Paul Buttigieg on a bus in the Gold Coast suburb of Kirra.
The footage, shot on a mobile phone by another passenger, was played to the court during Wednesday's hearing.
In the video, Watmough could be seen kicking and punching the elderly man as she and the other woman hurled verbal abuse at him.
The women had earlier been shown to yell obscenities at several passengers on the bus.
The video also clearly shows a child and a lady with a pram moving away from the pair as they become increasingly loud and aggressive.
A man heckled Watmough as she left court, calling her a coward and saying she should shoot herself.
Prosecutor Danielle Hunt told the court the women's actions were completely out of proportion to anything Mr Buttigieg had said to the pair.
"This was senseless, gratuitous violence," she said.
Watmough's lawyer Jodi Allen said her client had endured "extensive scrutiny in the media", adding she had received death threats and had job interviews terminated when employers realised who she was.
She said her client had expressed genuine remorse for the incident and had no history of violence.
Watmough's co-accused, Layni Cameron, 17, had her plea adjourned until a later date.
Cameron remains in custody on unrelated drug and robbery charges.
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