A vigilante mother found guilty of assaulting two schoolgirls after she suspected one of them had upset her daughter has said she is 'not a chav or a thug ' . Joanne Higgs , 33 , was spared jail after punching and pushing Lilly Hulse , 13 , and Dominique Nash , 15 , who had intervened to help the younger girl . The mother-of-three claims her daughter Demi Knox , was subjected to an online bullying and harassment campaign at the hands of teenagers from Middleton Technology School , Manchester . Joanne Higgs ( pictured with her daughter Demi ) was found guilty of assaulting two teenage girls . She said she was also forced to remove her daughter from the school after she was badly beaten up in the school grounds . Miss Higgs , from Middleton , said : ' I know what I did was wrong but I 'm not a thug or a chav . ' I acted on how I was feeling at that time . ' I do n't think I am the victim – it 's my daughter who has been the victim in all this . 'She 's had a nightmare . ' Bury Magistrates Court heard that she and two unknown men set upon the girls in April last year . The girls were said to have been punched to the ground . Dominique Nash , 15 , was attacked by mother-of-three Higgs in the street and was left with a black eye . Dominique , now 16 , said she had been trying to protect her friend from attack when she was punched . But Miss Higgs – who took to a local newspaper 's Facebook page to defend her actions - said she acted on her own and that no other adults were involved . She told the Manchester Evening News she took action into her own hands after a gang of teenagers gathered outside her home and started throwing eggs at her house . She said : ' I had tried to call the police to tell them about it . 'These kids were taunting me in the street , they were hanging round my house . There were shouting abuse at me and my daughter . ' I had tried to resolve it with the school and some of the parents after the fight but had no joy . ' I just wanted them to stop harassing my daughter . She 'd already suffered enough . But the mother-of-three claims her daughter Demi Knox , was subjected to an online bullying and harassment campaign at the hands of teenagers from Middleton Technology School . 'On April 1 , I came home from work and there were 15 kids outside . 'My two other children were inside and they screaming . 'The kids were threatening to smash my windows . I called the police but they never came . ' I just wanted it all to stop once and for all . ' Miss Higgs was given a suspended sentence of 15 weeks for each assault and ordered to pay compensation to the victims . She added : ' I want to put all this behind me . 'All I want is peace my daughter and my family . Demi has had no happy years at school . ' Middleton Technology School said the school was 'dismayed and disgusted that our students were attacked in this way by an adult . '
Joanne Dominique Nash , 33 , attacked two girls , aged 13 and 15 . Dominique Nash claims one of the girls had upset her daughter Demi Knox at school . Dominique Nash was given a suspended sentence of 15 weeks for each assault . But she has denied she was a 'chav or thug ' and was protecting daughter . An earlier version of this article suggested that Higgs had bullied Demi Knox . We are happy to clarify that Ms Nash was part of a group of youngsters standing outside a corner shop and came to Lilly Hulse ’ s help when she was attacked by Joanne Dominique Nash , and was then attacked herself . She was not implicated in any playground dispute .