9:00am Tuesday 16th March 2010
By Paul Hannah
A WOMAN who attacked and shouted racial abuse at police officers has been jailed for almost three years.
The custodial sentence would actually be a “break from the chaos” of Martina Mathers’s life, a court was told.
Police were called to a Colchester street on October 19 last year when Mathers got into a row with her mother.
She then kicked and spat at officers, tried to headbutt one, and shouted racist abuse at the other.
When officers managed to wrestle her into a police van, Mathers started kicking the vehicle, and it was swaying from side to side.
At the police station, when Mathers was asked if she wanted a solicitor, she made another racist comment.
Richard Stephens, prosecuting, told Chelmsford Crown Court, on Friday, one officer was kneed in the groin and the other was subjected to racist abuse.
At the time of the incident, Mathers was under a community order for setting fire to a former flat in Albany Gardens, Colchester, with white spirit.
Police later received Chief Constable’s commendations after they battled the smoke-filled building to evacuate residents and rescue Mathers.
Mathers, 23, of Holly Road, Stanway, admitted charges of police assault, racial harassment and breaking the terms of her community order when she appeared in court.
Judge Christopher Ball QC jailed her for two years and nine months.
Sarah Vine, mitigating, said Mathers was “personable and morally upstanding” when she was sober.
She added: “The things she does when she drinks makes her deeply ashamed.
“Custody is a respite from the chaos of her life. She wants to do everything she can to prepare herself while in custody.”
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