A drunken design and art student assaulted and screamed homophobic abuse at emergency workers after downing a bottle of tequila and claiming to have taken an overdose.
Zofia Nowacka, 19, of Morden, admitted five offences, including three of assaulting an emergency worker, when she appeared at Wimbledon Magistrates' Court on Thursday, 11th February 2021.
Magistrates heard that Nowacka had worked herself into a drunken state and decided it would be a good idea to call for an ambulance in the hope it would take her to Charing Cross Hospital, where she had convinced herself her boyfriend would be.
The plan went awry when the ambulance crew - paramedics Elizabeth Keegan and Matthew Morgan - took her to St George's Hospital in Tooting.
Prosecutor Trevor Green outlined the circumstances of the offences, which took place during the late evening of Wednesday, 18th November 2020.
He said: "She asked what hospital she was at and when told she was at St. George's she became aggressive towards Ms Keegan and got into her personal space and squared up to Mr Morgan and uttered the homophobic abuse."
The paramedics left in an effort to de-escalate the situation and Nowacka shouted "go fuck your mum" at them. She also unleashed a tirade of verbal abuse, which included homophobic comments, in their direction.
Parma Sharma, a security guard in the hospital's A&E department, stepped in and tried to remove the abusive student from the building.
"When he tried to escort her away she started screaming and grabbed Ms Keegan's hair and it took all of them to get her off and remove her from the building," said Mr Green.
"The defendant continued to be aggressive and punched Mr Sharma to the right cheek and continued hitting the security guard as attempts were made to get her handcuffed and she was taken to the ground.
"She was arrested and kept spitting in the police van on the way to Wandsworth Police Station, where there was further aggression directed towards the custody officer.
"Once in her cell she took off her top and put it around her neck and the officer, Angela Clift, tried to remove it and in doing that the defendant raised her hand and the officer received a blow to her cheek."
Probation Officer Janet Barnes addressed the court in relation to a pre-sentence report on Nowacka.
Ms Barnes said that Nowacka had described herself as being "completely out of it", although the bottle of tequila meant she couldn't remember much.
"She realises it is serious and is very, very sorry and has not intention of repeating such behaviour and apologises to the victims."
John Connolly, mitigating, reminded Magistrates that his client was of previous good character.
"She would be horrified if her friends, many who are in the LGBTQ community, knew she behaved like this and used these words," he said.
"Alcohol must have played some part in this. This is a one-off and there is genuine remorse."
Taking everything into account, Magistrates decided that the combination of offences was serious enough to justify a community order.
Nowacka was handed a 12-month community order with the requirement that she completes up to 15 rehabilitation activity days.
She was also ordered to pay each of the emergency workers £75 in compensation (so £300 in total), fined £50 for causing a nuisance on NHS premises and ordered to pay £95 victim surcharge.
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