A woman who tried to snatch a six-week-old baby from his pram in Irvine town centre has avoided jail.

Laura Arkison, 38, grabbed the newborn from his pram shouting “my baby” and tried to make off with him in front of his horrified mum and auntie.

Kilmarnock Sheriff Court heard the baby boy’s quick thinking auntie, who had been shopping in Irvine’s High Street with the child’s mother on May 16 this year, stopped Arkison in her tracks and took the baby back.

The procurator fiscal depute Vicky McMillan told the court: “It was around 5.30pm. The complainer was with her sister and her six-week-old son who was in the pram.

“They were standing just outside Iceland and noted someone approaching them. She appeared to be under the influence of something.

“She walked up and placed her hand inside the pram stating “my baby” and attempted to remove the child from the pram, however the complainer and her sister took hold of the baby and prevented the accused from doing so, before pushing the accused away.

“The accused then walked off and police were contacted.

“She was formally pointed out by witnesses and police recovered CCTV from Iceland and she was identified from that.”

Arkison’s defence solicitor Mark Chambers said his client had “been in an emotional state” since going through some serious personal problems involving her own child, just five months earlier.

He said: “This is a deeply distressing case for her and indeed, for those involved as Crown witnesses. “She had been on her medication and had taken four tablets that day.

“She was in a very emotional state that day and she fully accepts that she conducted herself in that manner but she has no explanation why.

“She was emotional and the medication had played a part.

“She was in emotional distress but that’s not taking away from the distress felt by the witnesses.

“She has been co-operating with social services and has been doing well.”

Sheriff Shirley Foran deferred sentence for six months for good behaviour.

Mum of snatched baby blasts offender ‘getting off scot-free’

The mother of the baby Laura Arkison tried to snatch this week spoke of her disgust at her getting away “Scot-free”.

The 23-year-old, who cannot be named to protect the identity of her child, says Arkison should have “got four or five years in jail”.

Speaking exclusively to the Times, she said: “If she done it to my child she could do it again to someone else’s.

“Me and my sister were standing outside Iceland and she came over to us from nowhere and started feeling about my pram then she started saying “this is my baby this is my pram”.

“Then she just grabbed him and tried to pull him out the pram and take him away. Luckily my sister grabbed him back and she just walked away. It was a very frightening experience. 

“I can’t believe she is just getting away scot-free. She should have got four or five years in jail. Kidnapping a child, or even trying to kidnap a child is so serious and it should be punished as a serious offence." 

The Irvine mum said she has been left traumatised since the incident and it has had a lasting impact.

She said: “I am wary now whenever I go out. I am constantly thinking someone could do it again. I had never seen her before in my life and I don’t know why she targeted me, maybe because I have a big Silvercross pram, I’m not sure.

“The fact that she had personal trouble means nothing to me. That doesn’t not give her the right to try to take my baby.“