A chef has appeared in court on an assault charge after she deliberately vomited on a police officer following a drunken family row.
Brady Pickering’s “disgusting” assault on the policeman happened after she consumed “vast amounts” of alcohol at a Turkish theme party at the Banchory Lodge hotel earlier this year.
The 29-year-old and her family had all been attending the event on March 10 but an argument broke out, the court heard.
Charges that Pickering punched both her sister and her sister’s partner on the head, as well as resisting arrested, were dropped by the Crown.
Fiscal depute Andrew McCann accepted Pickering’s plea of guilty to spitting and vomiting on the police constable when he tried to arrest her at her then-home address in Strachan.
Mr McCann said the family had been enjoying a party night at the hotel, adding: “They had all consumed vast amounts of alcohol.”
He said: “Comments were made about the accused’s intoxicated behaviour. This resulted in her and her sister having a discussion outside – where it was suggested the accused should return home.”
But things got heated, the court was told, and the police were eventually contacted.
When the police arrived, Pickering had already left the hotel and had gone home, where they found her outside her house.
Mr McCann explained that Pickering had told the officers that she did not have her house key and that matters had escalated at the hotel.
Brady Pickering ‘purposefully vomited’ on police officer
He said: “While trying to arrest her, she purposefully turned round and vomited and was spitting at the police officer. They got her under control and took her to Kittybrewster.”
Pickering’s defence agent Caroline Leckie explained that her client was a chef and had recently moved back in with her grandmother in Rotherham, Yorkshire.
She told the court she was currently laid off due to her workplace being flooded.
She said Pickering had been diagnosed with a borderline personality disorder, ADHD and depression.
Ms Leckie added: “She is normally of good behaviour and is striving to stay sober. She was offered copious amounts of alcohol and at one point a whole bottle of wine was purchased and placed in front of her.
‘A family argument spiralled out of control’
“Her behaviour became hostile and aggressive.”
Ms Leckie said Pickering recalled a different narrative in that she had asked to go home, having realised she had had enough to drink, but her sister would not give her a house key and she had been “provoked”.
On passing sentence, Sheriff Craig Findlater said this was “obviously something that should not happen”.
“A family argument spiralled out of control to a quite disgusting assault on a police officer,” he said.
He fined Pickering £580.
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