A drink-driver who was arrested after smashing through a garden fence asked officers if they would kidnap her ‘like Sarah Everard’.
Annabel Lewis kicked, spat and screamed at officers who were at the scene of her crash, begging them to “please don’t kill me officer”, a court heard.
The 34-year-old motorist was nearly three times over the drink-drive limit when she crashed her silver Volkswagen Polo in Southampton last year.
Lewis, who had an “innate dislike of the police”, was “adamant” that she had not touched any alcohol and crashed trying to “avoid a deer or a badger”.
But after pleading guilty to five charges of assaulting an emergency worker and three charges of racially aggravated willful harassment, alarm or distress, she has now been given an eight-month suspended sentence.
Prosecutor Grave McConnell told Southampton Crown Court the incident happened in the early hours of August 31.
She told onlookers she had crashed to avoid a deer or badger but was seen to be silent and a bottle of Baileys was found in her vehicle, it was heard.
The police attended but she launched a barrage of abuse, swearing at them and saying ‘please don’t kill 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 given a life warrant for Ms Everard’s murder, and was also recently found guilty of three counts of indecent exposure which occurred earlier.
Couzens used Covid’s powers to falsely arrest Ms Everard as she walked home from a friend’s house in Clapham. He went on to commit crimes so horrific that they shocked the nation and undermined confidence in the police.
Lewis was found to be nearly three times the drink-drive limit in a road test.
During the abuse, she shouted “Allah” repeatedly, told the officer they looked like rapists, and began threatening them with physical violence.
She was handcuffed and placed in the car, but then started kicking, grabbed two officers by the chest, then was handcuffed and sedated.
This did not work as she later kicked the officer “enough to make him take a step back” before spitting at another member of the force at Southampton Central Police Station.
During the search, she also threw a shoe and an ankle bracelet at the police.
Ms McConell told the court it was an “ongoing incident” where “several police officers present caused distress”.
Stephen Tricker, who is representing Lewis, said she felt she was being wrongly accused of driving under the influence.
“She is adamant that she had not been drinking before the crash,” he said.
Referring to the fact that she had stayed out of trouble for more than 10 years, he added that “there is no justification for the way she treated those officers” but that she “proved that she could stay out of trouble.”
Sentencing her for the “very unpleasant” incident, Judge Peter Henry said: “You have an appalling record.
“You obviously have an innate dislike of the police.
“Even if you suffer from mental health problems, that’s no excuse for what happened.”
Lewis was given an eight-month sentence suspended for two years with 25 days of rehabilitation and 150 hours of unpaid work.
She was ordered to pay £550 compensation.