Kebab case wraps up

A GOLD Coast woman has been found guilty of assaulting a police officer with a kebab.

Kristine Lea Simmonds, 39, was acquitted in the Southport Magistrates Court of public nuisance and obstructing police today but was found guilty in a summary hearingof hitting a police officer with a package containing a kebab.

The court was told Simmonds assaulted Senior Constable Renee Gough after she was instructed to leave a verbal confrontation between two groups at an Orchid Ave taxi rank in the early hours of December 30 last year. When Senior Constable Gough pushed Simmonds on the shoulder and directed her to leave, Simmonds responded by pushing back with both hands.

Police prosecutor Senior Constable Matt Brook said the officer struck Simmonds in the face with an open hand before Simmonds lashed out with a “polystyrene container containing a kebab” which hit the officer in the face, neck and shoulder.

Magistrate Louise Shephard found Simmonds had not obstructed police because she was restraining her son and she did not resist arrest.

But Ms Shepherd found Simmonds guilty of assaulting a police officer, saying that Senior Constable Gough used reasonable force while trying to move her on.

She fined Simmonds $700 and ordered she pay $400 to Senior Constable Gough in compensation for dry cleaning needed to get the kebab out of her uniform and for a necklace broken during the exchange.

“Police have a tough enough job as it is,” Ms Shephard said.