Woman Attacks Policeman on Dangerous Combo of A/D's & Alcohol
Summary:
Paragraphs 15 & 16 read: "Despite the struggle with her addiction, Miss Whiteley said Forde had managed to hold down a job working for a charity."
"She said Forde had attended Alcoholics Anonymous meetings to try and get a grip on her alcoholism and had been prescribed antidepressants."
SSRI Stories Note: The Physicians Desk Reference states that antidepressants can cause a craving for alcohol and can cause alcohol abuse. Also, the liver cannot metabolize the antidepressant and the alcohol simultaneously, thus leading to higher levels of both alcohol and the antidepressant in the human body
A DEPRESSED woman has been jailed after she drunkenly kicked a policeman who went to her aid.
Officers were sent to help Julie Forde after she made a 999 call threatening to walk in front of traffic to end her life, a court heard.
Yet when one of them tried to talk to the 39-year-old, she became abusive and told him to go and catch "real criminals" before kicking him in the leg.
Appearing at Aldershot Magistrates’ Court last Thursday (January 20), Forde said she was an indebted alcoholic who had relapsed after getting a letter from the bailiffs.
But the magistrates heard this latest incident put Forde, who admitted assaulting a police constable, in breach of a three-month suspended sentence for the third time, so they activated her prison term.
Prosecutor Serena Edwards said police headed to Crookham Road in Church Crookham on Wednesday, January 19 this year after Forde had made a call saying she was going to walk out in front of car.
She said that when the officer found Forde, she was extremely drunk and kept saying she wanted to end her life.
Miss Edwards said Forde then became abusive to the policeman, who told her if she kept it up she would be arrested.
Forde then told the officer to "catch some real criminals".
The court heard the defendant was very unsteady on her feet, and later kicked the officer in the shin and was arrested for assault.
"Very low"
Magistrates were told that in her interview with police, Forde said she could not remember the events of the evening but that drink made her a different person.
Eve Whiteley, defending, said her client was an alcoholic who had been dry for six weeks but lapsed just before her arrest after getting a letter over an outstanding debt.
Miss Whiteley said: "She received a letter from the bailiffs over a £900 debt. She was feeling very low and with everyday pressures it caused her to relapse.
"She said she had one drink which turned into many, as it does."
Despite the struggle with her addiction, Miss Whiteley said Forde had managed to hold down a job working for a charity.
She said Forde had attended Alcoholics Anonymous meetings to try and get a grip on her alcoholism and had been prescribed antidepressants.
Miss Whiteley said Forde knew she was probably going to jail but asked the magistrates to consider sparing her a spell behind bars and make her attend an alcohol treatment programme instead.
Forde wept in the dock as the magistrates retired to consider her sentence.
Chairman Michael Ratcliffe then told her he was activating four weeks of her suspended prison sentence for this latest breach.
He also sentenced her to seven days in prison for assaulting the policeman, with the terms to run concurrently