A woman has been given a four month suspended prison sentence and banned from going to a church in Hampstead after hurling abuse at church goers and disrupting a service.

Christine Ann Sands, 53, of Cowper Road, Chesham, pleaded guilty to two charges after attending a protest outside Christ Church last month.

The first charge was for using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour, or disorderly behaviour, under section 4A of the Public Order Act (1986).

The second charge was for engaging in riotous, violent or indecent behaviour in a church or church yard, under the Ecclesiastical Courts Jurisdiction Act (1860).

Ms Sands was arrested on April 4 and appeared at Highbury Magistrates Court last Thursday.

She was given a four month prison sentence, suspended for 12 months. A restraining order bans her from going to Christ Church until 2018, and she was ordered to pay costs and a victim surcharge.

A second woman has also been charged with the same two offences. Neelu Berry, 55, of Clayhall, Ilford, pleaded not-guilty to the two charges and will appear at Tottenham Magistrates Court on August 4.

She is bailed on condition of not going within 500m of Christ Church.

The two arrests come in the context of a series of protests that have taken place outside Christ Church for the past month after unfounded allegations were made last year claiming satanic child abuse and the killing of babies had taken place there.

Last month, a High Court judge found the discredited claims, made by two children now in care, to be a “fantasy” and “nothing other than utter nonsense”.