Female drunk driver, 34, arrested after smashing through a garden fence asked police officers if they'd kidnap her 'like Sarah Everard'
A female drunk driver who was arrested after smashing through a garden fence, asked police officers if they'd kidnap her 'like Sarah Everard'.
Annabel Lewis kicked, spat and shouted at police who attended the scene of her crash and pleaded with them saying 'please don't murder me officer', a court heard.
The 34-year-old motorist was found to be nearly three times over the drink drive limit when she crashed her silver Volkswagen Polo in Southampton last year.
Lewis, who was deemed to have an 'inbuilt dislike of the police', was 'adamant' she hadn't touched any alcohol and crashed in an effort to 'avoid a deer or a badger'.
But after admitting five charges of assaulting an emergency worker and three charges of causing racially aggravated intentional harassment, alarm or distress, she has now been handed an eight-month suspended sentence.
Prosecutor Grave McConnell told Southampton Crown Court the incident took place in the early hours of August 31.
Annabel Lewis, 34, pictured outside Southampton Crown Court
Ms Lewis asked police officers if they were going to kidnap her like Sarah Everard (pictured)
She told onlookers that she had crashed to avoid a deer or a badger, but she was seen to be slurring her words and a bottle of Baileys was found in her vehicle, it was heard.
Police attended but she began her barrage of insults, swearing at them, and saying 'please don't murder me officer' before asking them if they would 'kidnap me like Sarah Everard'.
Sarah Everard, 33, disappeared on the evening of March 3, 2021, and her body was not found until a week later.
In September 2021, Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens was served a whole life order for murdering Ms Everard, and has more recently also been found guilty on three counts of indecent exposure which occurred prior.
Couzens used Covid powers to conduct a fake arrest of Ms Everard as she walked home from a friend's house in Clapham. He went on to commit crimes so horrific they shocked the nation and undermined confidence in the police.
In a roadside test, Lewis was found to be nearly three times the drink drive limit.
During the abuse she shouted 'Allah' repeatedly, told an officer they looked like a rapist and began to threaten them with physical violence.
Ms Lewis was 'adamant' she hadn't touched any alcohol and crashed in an effort to 'avoid a deer or a badger'
She was restrained and placed in a car but then began kicking out, catching two officers on the chest before being placed in restraints and left to calm down.
This didn't work as she later kicked an officer 'hard enough to force him to take a backward step' before spitting at another member of the police force at Southampton Central Police Station.
She also threw her shoe and an ankle bracelet at officers during a search.
Ms McConell told the court this was a 'sustained incident' with 'distress being caused to a number of police officers present'.
Representing Lewis, Stephen Tricker said she felt she was being wrongly accused of drink driving.
Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens was served a whole life order for murdering Ms Everard in September 2021
'She is adamant she had not been drinking prior to the collision,' he said.
Referring to the fact she'd stayed out of trouble for over 10 years, he added there was 'no justification for the way she treated those officers' but that she had 'demonstrated that she can keep out of trouble'.
Sentencing her for the 'very unpleasant' incident, Judge Peter Henry said: 'You have got an appalling record.
'You obviously have an inbuilt dislike of the police.
'Even if you do suffer from mental health issues that is no justification for what happened.'
Lewis received an eight-month sentence suspended for two years with 25 rehabilitation days and 150 hours of unpaid work.
She was ordered to pay £550 in compensation.
