A woman set off a hotel fire alarm because she thought her painful high heels were an emergency.

Katie Cooper, dressed in a mini-skirt and party top, appeared in Brighton Magistrates’ Court yesterday where she admitted setting off the alarm at the 208-room Royal Albion in Old Steine.

Cooper, set off the alarm at 2am on April 5. When the 22-year-old was asked why she launched into a “torrent” of racist abuse.

The woman, who claims job- seeker’s allowance, abused the hotel’s night manager named in court only as Mr Wasim.

During police interviews Cooper, who was visiting Brighton from Calgary Road, Bexhill, said she could not remember the abuse. But she then told officers she accepted it because she “couldn’t be bothered”.

Chris Ball, prosecuting, said staff found Cooper lying on the floor near the smashed alarm.

“She felt scared she had lost her friends and had hurt her foot and was having to crawl around.

Stephanie Dale, defending, said: “She felt abandoned. She was walking on her high-heeled shoes and she had hurt her ankle. She said in her head it was an emergency and that is why she rang the alarm.

“She could not think of any other way of getting attention,” she added.

Cooper admitted one count of criminal damage and one of using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour or disorderly behaviour within the hearing or sight of a person likely to be caused harassment, alarm or distress, thereby, and the offence was racially aggravated.

District Judge Peter Crabtree said Cooper’s behaviour was “completely unacceptable”. She was ordered to pay £275 in fines and costs.