A COUPLE have admitted smashing a young mother’s head into a metal pole in front of her young children on a bus after she moved her pram to allow them to stow their own.

Amy Boyle, 19, spat at Leila de Aguiar and partner Nathaniel Pope, 21, from Derwent Rise, Kingsbury, threw her off the crowded 83 bus and kicked her as she lay on the ground in Vivian Avenue, Hendon, on January 17.

Ms de Aguiar, 23, who was travelling with her two daughters aged three years and seven months, moved her pushchair to allow Pope and Boyle to stow theirs next to her.

Instead they moved theirs to take up most of the space on the lower deck of the double-decker bus, and when Ms de Aguiar tried to push her pram back in she accidentally nudged their buggy.

At this point Boyle, of Wynford Road, Islington, lost her temper and launched a four-letter tirade at the victim, threatening to punch her and spitting at her.

Ms de Aguiar picked up a small umbrella her three-year-old daughter had with her to defend herself, but Pope, wearing a hoody, grabbed her by the hair and hit her head on a metal pole three times.

He then dragged her across the bus and threw her by the hair out of the open rear doors, kicking her as she lay on the ground.

Pope then repeatedly blocked her attempts to get back to her two children who were still on the bus by pushing her with “considerable force”.

The pair then casually wheeled their pushchair off the bus and walked off leaving Ms de Aguiar bleeding from her ear and badly bruised on the ground.

Police used CCTV of the incident, described by prosecutor Priya Valentine as “damning”, to help catch the pair, who were arrested in March after a tip-off from the public.

Adjourning the sentencing for four weeks for pre-sentence reports with “all options considered”, chairman of the bench Nigel Orton told them: “There are factors in both of your cases particular to this matter.

“In the case of Miss Boyle this was in the presence of two small children while you were in charge of a child yourself, it involved spitting and was unprovoked.

“For Pope it was a repeated and sustained violence and injury caused to the victim. I believe both of you did this intentionally.”

Both pleaded guilty to common assault and are set to be sentenced at Hendon Magistrates Court on May 17.