A ghoul who stole charity money from the Clutha Vaults pub in the wake of the helicopter tragedy faces being locked up again - for a vicious Ardrossan assault which saw her kick her defenceless victim in the head.

Charmaine Holmes stole alcohol and a charity tin from the disaster-hit pub with a gang of friends.

Holmes, 20, was later caged for threatening to slit a schoolboy’s throat during a broad daylight mugging where she stole his football, and received another spell behind bars for trashing a homeless hostel, being caught with a knife and giving police a false name.

And she now faces being locked up again after admitting her guilt over a vicious assault which saw her kick her victim on the head after bombarding her with abuse and punching her to the ground.

Holmes, who has lived in both Ardrossan and Stevenston, appeared in the dock at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court this week and pleaded guilty to assaulting another female in Ardrossan in July this year.

Procurator Fiscal Depute Jennifer Harkins explained: “The complainer and a friend were outside the Princes Street hostel and saw the accused standing nearby.

“The accused started to shout at the witnesses and the friend of the complainer went inside to contact the police.

“The accused then punched the complainer to the head, causing the complainer to fall, and the accused then kicked her on the head when she was on the ground.

“Police attended and could see the complainer’s eye was swollen and starting to bruise.”

Holmes was traced a short time later but was not cautioned and charged with officers because she was so drunk.”

Defence solicitor Michael McKeown, a partner in law firm Callahan, McKeown and company, said Holmes had managed to stay “out of trouble for a number of years” despite her troubled past.

He asked Sheriff Moira MacKenzie to bring the case to an end by sentencing Holmes there and then.

But the sheriff said: “Standing her age and due to the nature of the charge and fact the complainer was kicked in the head when on the ground the court will defer sentence for a [background] report.”

Holmes will be assessed by social workers ahead of sentencing, including for whether she should be placed on a Restriction of Liberty Order - a form of house arrest which sees a criminal electronically tagged and given a daily curfew.

She could be caged for as long as 12 months when she returns to the dock next month to learn her fate.

Holmes was previously caged for threatening to slit a 14-year-old boy’s throat and stab him and his pal as she robbed them of their football in Linwood, Renfrewshire, in 2013.

She struck a deal with prosecutors which saw claims she had used a knife in the mugging deleted from the charge when she pleaded guilty to the offence.

Just half an hour before she targeted the boys, she threw a 12-year-old boy against a wall and rifled through his pockets.

She was originally placed on a Community Payback Order (CPO) at Paisley Sheriff Court for those offences but breached it, claiming she was suffering from depression and was being bullied by other criminals because she robbed the Clutha.

And she was caged for a year as an alternative punishment because she breached the CPO.