A mother had her hair pulled out as she fought off a woman who tried to kidnap her baby daughter in a shoe store, while shop staff looked on and laughed.

Rebecca Nightingale, 28, of Wheatfield Way, Kingston, told a judge he could “stick the bible up his arse” when she took the stand in Kingston Crown Court, charged with attempted kidnapping and battery.

A jury took just seven minutes to find Nightingale, 28, guilty of the charges against her this week after she attempted to kidnap a six-month-old girl in George Street, Richmond, on February 10 last year.

The court heard earlier that day Nightingale had had her fifth child taken into care by social services.

She later went to George Street and saw a mother with her baby daughter in a pram.

Nightingale went up to the woman and shouted: “You’re the foster mother, aren’t you? Give me back my son. I want my son back.”

The mother tried to escape into the Reebok store, but Nightingale followed her.

In a statement read by prosecutor Andrew Jordan, the mother said: “She [Nightingale] reached for my head and I didn’t know whether she was going to punch me.

“I thought that if she got near my daughter she would honestly take her.

“The staff were for some reason just laughing. I said ‘Please stop laughing’.”

The court saw CCTV footage from the Reebok shop that showed Nightingale following the mother around the store and pulling off her hat and with it some hair.

Nightingale appeared confused when she took the stand at Kingston Crown Court and said it could not have been her in the CCTV because she was in police custody at the time.

She had in fact been arrested the next day when she drunkenly entered Kingston police station and an officer recognised her as the suspect in the attempted kidnapping.

The prosecution pointed out her story had changed significantly every time she had been asked about the events of that day.

Nightingale was released on bail until April 8, subject to a report to assess whether an evaluation into her mental health needs to be done.

Judge Paul Dodgson said: “Sometimes you wonder if matters such as these belong in the criminal court.

“I want to see what can be done to help rather than punish at the moment.”