Leanne Burgess head butted one of the medics and kicked the other before causing more than £1,500 worth of damage
Copyright 2006 Eastern Daily Press (EDP)
Eastern Daily Press
A mother-of-four was jailed yesterday for attacking paramedics and smashing their ambulance in a drug-fuelled frenzy.
Leanne Burgess head butted one of the medics and kicked the other before causing more than £1,500 worth of damage.
The two paramedics were eventually forced to cower behind a hedge for safety until police arrived and arrested the 24-year-old.
Burgess, of Middlewood, Fairstead, Lynn, broke down in tears yesterday as magistrates in King’s Lynn sentenced her to 22 weeks behind bars.
The court was told she had attacked the two paramedics, David Enser and Michele Jones, after an ambulance was called to her neighbour’s home in Fairstead on June 15 this year.
Dorothy Pulsford-Harris, prosecuting, said: “The defendant came out and started being very abusive. Mr Enser took hold of her arm and at that point she head butted him and kicked Ms Jones.
“The defendant started screaming to be let go, Mr Enser pushed her away and she yelled at her children to get her a bat.
“One of the boys returned with a claw hammer and the medics hid behind a hedge for safety.”
Burgess started to smash the hammer into the ambulance, destroying widows, lights and ripping its satellite navigation system off the dashboard.
She was arrested by police and taken to Lynn station where she then assaulted a detention officer.
Rhys Mardon, mitigating, told the court Burgess’ behaviour had been totally out of character and was caused by a cocktail of prescribed drugs. A mixture of methadone and sleeping tablets had caused the 24-year-old’s aggression.
“This is not Leanne Burgess,” he said. “As soon as she was off the mixture she was straight back to the old Leanne. She is a single mother of four young children, aged nine, eight, seven and two.
“She is on income support because of the amount of time she has to spend with the children.
“This is drugs related but she accepts full responsibility for her actions. She expresses her utmost disappointment in her own actions.”
Burgess pleaded guilty to three assaults and criminal damage. She was also sentenced to four weeks prison for theft, two weeks
for breaching a community order and one week for failing to surrender to bail — all to run concurrently with the 22-week prison term.