Woman spared jail for kicking police officer
A WOMAN has avoided jail for kicking a police officer after a drinking session – claiming she has turned her back on alcohol.
Tania Whetham, 37, and two others were found to be intoxicated when police turned up at a house on Wooded Close in Bury at 10am on February 12, Manchester magistrates court heard. Whetham, from Wythenshawe, was said to have called police, but upon seeing them became aggressive.
Gareth Hughes, prosecuting, said: “The police were hoping to take this defendant to an alternative place and alternative address.
“She seems to have overheard those discussions and assumed she was being sectioned under the Mental Health Act. This caused a reaction which made for the main part of the assault. She had gone for the knife block in the kitchen. The officer managed to stop her before she got there. Two officers then took her to the floor, and then she kicked out her leg backwards, which connected with the officer in the back. No injury was caused.”
Whetham was said to have 20 previous offences of a similar nature, including previous assaults on police constables.
Bill Rawstron, defending, said: “She presents today significantly better in terms of her physical characteristics. She has not drunk alcohol since that day. She has since moved back in with her elderly grandmother who does not abide by drinking. The situation was that she was homeless and was made an offer by the tenant of the property, and the police were called.
“That gentleman took advantage of her vulnerabilities, he would often ply her with vodka, make sexually inappropriate remarks and have that similar type of contact.
“She called the police that morning and they saw three people who were under the influence of alcohol at 10am. It’s clear she had marks and bruises, and that she was subject to a physical attack. When she was going for the knife block, she wanted to harm herself, not the officer.”
Whetham, of Harbury Crescent, pleaded guilty to one charge of assault on an emergency worker, and was sentenced to a 12-month community order.
District Judge John Temperley said: “I sentence you on the basis that when you reached for that knife block, you had the intention of only harming yourself, rather than anybody else.”
Whetham was sentenced to a 20day rehabilitation activity and must pay a £100 fine, £50 compensation to the officer and £150 court costs.