A WOMAN convicted of assaulting young children has failed to persuade top judges her trial was unfair because too few Muslims were on the jury.

Ruba Talib, aged 42, of Briarwood, Runcorn, Cheshire, claimed it was wrong for her to go before a jury at Chester Crown Court as there were not enough Muslims in the area and on her panel.

The judge at Chester rejected her complaints, and Talib was convicted of four counts of common assault, one of putting a person in fear of violence by harassment, and one of criminal damage on January 28 this year.

She was sentenced to 200 hours community service and handed a restraining order on February 26.

Lord Justice Pitchford, Mr Justice Treacy, and Judge Stephen Kramer QC, sitting at London's Criminal Appeal Court last Tuesday, rejected her appeal against both conviction and sentence.

The court heard Talib had hit one child with a shoe.

She sat on another and gave a child a nose bleed with a slap in the face. She denied the offences and claimed she should never have stood trial as she had "no case to answer".

She also criticised the lack of Muslims in the Chester area and on her trial jury.

Dismissing both her applications, Lord Justice Pitchford said "There was no unfairness relating to the venue. The jurors were able to assess the evidence and came to their own conclusions, assisted by a conspicuously fair summing up by the trial judge.”