A woman who pushed a paramedic down a flight of steps after he tried to help her following a drunken fall has admitted assault.
Kathleen Spark had taken a tumble and hit her head while drinking in an Inverness pub – and then suffered a second blow when she was dropped by people who were carrying her out of the premises.
But when paramedics tried to take her to hospital she refused to go – and ended up sending one of them to casualty instead.
Spark, 50, appeared at Inverness Sheriff Court to admit a single charge of assault to injury.
Drunk woman hit head
Fiscal depute Naomi Duffy-Welsh told the court that on January 10 of this year Spark had been drinking in the Fluke Bar in Inverness when she fell and hit her head.
She was then dropped, hitting her head a second time, as people attempted to carry her out of the premises.
Paramedics later attended at Spark’s home address in Balmoral Terrace, Inverness, and she was advised that she ought to go to hospital to be treated.
However, after being strapped into a special chair to be transported, Spark decided she did not wish to follow their advice.
“She said she did not want to go,” said Ms Duffy-Welsh.
Woman pushed paramedic down steps
Spark then wriggled free from the chair and pushed one of the paramedics, causing him to fall down a flight of steps and sustain soft tissue injuries.
Solicitor Neil Wilson, for Spark, said his client was “extremely embarrassed” about what she had done.
“She apologises unreservedly to the paramedic and understands that these people came to help,” he said.
Fining Spark £380, Sheriff Sara Matheson said: “It is a terrible state to get yourself into at your age, I’m glad to hear that you are ashamed and embarrassed. It is totally unacceptable, particularly for a paramedic, to be injured in this way.”
