A drunk bus passenger who verbally abused a police officer with highly offensive racial slurs, including “chocolate face” and the ‘N’ word, has been jailed.
Sarah Cooper, described as “a chronic alcoholic and pathetic figure likely to kill herself” through drink, targeted the female constable after she and a colleague responded to a disturbance in Brompton, near Gillingham, on March 3 this year.
The bus had to be stopped due to the disruptive behaviour of Sarah Cooper who has now been jailed. Photo: Kent Police
Maidstone Crown Court heard that a bus driver was forced to pull over and call for help to deal with the disruptive, threatening and aggressive 47-year-old on board his vehicle.
But when a police constable and a fellow officer arrived, they were soon met with a torrent of vile and lewd remarks as they tried to arrest Cooper.
The many racist insults made at the roadside, en route to custody and then once at North Kent police station included a reference to “darkies” as well as repeatedly calling her a “f***ing black c**t” and “black bitch”.
The court heard the racially abused police constable, who was just six weeks into her job, was “deeply wounded” by Cooper’s behaviour.
However, despite assertions that the defendant was now “desperately embarrassed, full of remorse and regret” and ready to tackle her drink misuse, Judge Julian Smith decided immediate imprisonment was the only option.
Cooper kicked PC King-Yombo in the shin before resorting to further abuse. Picture: iStock
Speaking to Cooper in the dock, he told her that not only had her foul language been “dredged up from the pit where it is confined and should remain” but it could not be blamed on her intoxication.
“You used it against that officer who was just doing her public duty. You were as offensive as you could manage and you caused considerable distress to that officer,” he said.
“She, in my judgment, behaved with the upmost professionalism, notwithstanding what was relentless and determined racial abuse which incorporated all the bitterness and rage you no doubt feel, not particularly with her but the world in general. She was your target.
“I reject [the argument] that you blame alcohol as the reason for those comments.
“Alcohol may disinhibit you and make you speak in a way you may never otherwise dream of but alcohol does not give you the vile eloquence to find those abusive and offensive remarks.
“It comes from you. It doesn’t come from the drink.”
Maidstone Crown Court heard that a bus driver was forced to pull over and call for help. Stock picture
Although Cooper, of Ramsgate Road, Broadstairs, admitted an offence of racially aggravated intentional harassment, alarm or distress, the court heard she has no recollection of the incident and did not know why she was on that particular bus other than she may have been going to see her mum.
Prosecutor Bridget Todd said that when the two police constables arrived in Brompton Road, Cooper was sitting on the bus step drinking from a can of alcohol.
She initially gave her name but, when told she was being arrested for a public order offence, became abusive and demanded she was not touched.
The police constable then approached to help her colleague, only to be met by Cooper’s foul mouth.
Having first called her a “f***ing black c**t”, the language continued with repeated references to her skin colour.
Cooper even commented on her own heritage, saying she was “mixed race”, to further insult the officer’s Afro hair, the court was told.
I tried to show nothing but kindness but all she could see was my skin colour in uniform
At one stage, she also kicked the oficer in the shin before resorting to further abuse, calling her “chocolate face” before adding “I don’t do n*****s, I don’t do darkies”.
The officer’s male colleague was also subjected to what the prosecutor described as “inappropriate sexual comments” about his appearance.
In a victim impact statement read at Cooper’s sentencing hearing on Wednesday (April 8), the police constable described how she had never expected to start her working day with such “atrocious racial abuse”.
“I tried my hardest to remain professional and polite but it really was not easy to contain my feelings of sorrow,” she said.
“Today [March 3] was a day I will never forget. I tried to show nothing but kindness but all she could see was my skin colour in uniform.
“I am still new in my serving experience as an officer but this will stick with me for the remainder of my career.”
Sarah Cooper has been jailed following her abusive tirade onboard a bus in Medway. Photo: Kent Police
Defending Cooper, who has 19 previous convictions for 44 offences including assaults on emergency workers, criminal damage, battery and exposure, Ben Hargreaves said she recognised her “appalling language” was not only “disgusting” but also “ridiculous” given that her father is Black and she is “not racist”.
Explaining how her long-standing alcohol problem was at the root of her offending, he suggested the court could impose a suspended sentence with a package of conditions, arguing that although a period behind bars would result in sobriety, the “urge, pull and drive to drink” would still be present on release.
Referring to Cooper’s bleak future if her alcoholism was not tackled, Mr Hargreaves told the court: “She is of an age now – and you can see her physicality – that she is going to drink herself to death.
“It is a wretched situation by her own design, not even her grown-up children have anything to do with her. But, unless she stops, she will probably end up killing herself.”
On passing sentence, Judge Smith said he had to balance the defendant’s interests with her conduct that day.
He also cast doubt on Cooper’s readiness to change and, jailing her for 12 months, told her: “You are somebody who, in drink, becomes angry and aggressive, particularly to those in authority who are there to assist us all and manage behaviour in society.
“It is said by you in the pre-sentence report that the problem here is alcohol. You certainly have a problem with alcohol. Yours is a profound addiction which has you in its grip. There is no other way to describe it.
“I have little doubt that every waking hour when you are in the community is focused on when you get your next drink, how you will feel better for it, and cannot think of anything else but it.
“You are in a low, desperate place and I agree with the eloquent submissions made on your behalf that your best hope is to tackle your addiction in a way that will dry you out, build you up and give you a prospect for the future.
“That step is undoubtedly yours to take and one which requires the utmost commitment. I’m afraid in recent times, when it has come to community orders, you have repeatedly breached them and repeatedly failed to comply, and have continued to offend in drink – aggressive and violent and abusive as you have been.
“There was no exception to that on March 3 when the bus driver had no option but to delay all his passengers by calling police to deal with you.
“You were frankly uncontrollable and clearly highly intoxicated.”
Cooper, who has been on remand since her arrest, will serve 40% of the jail term before being released.