Woman avoids jail after rampage at Castle Take Away in Dover
Published: 05:00, 06 November 2022
A "wild" drunk woman launched chairs at a takeaway window before sinking her teeth into a man and head-butting another.
Hannah Corlett, 23, also kicked a police officer in the face after it took up to four people to restrain her as she unleashed a trail of chaos in Dover.
One victim’s nose was so badly swollen it could not be X-Rayed, while another required tetanus and hepatitis shots for a bite wound.
The former Dover Grammar School for Girls student was handed a suspended prison sentence at Canterbury Crown Court on Thursday, where a judge likened her behaviour to “a wild animal.”
Enraged Corlett, of Deal, had been drinking before becoming frenzied at Castle Take Away in Castle Street, during the early afternoon in October last year.
She repeatedly slammed the fish and chip shop’s metal chairs into the window, causing it to smash, as the shocked owner watched from inside.
Proprietor Fabrizo Del Duca and a member of staff tried seizing Corlett but she ferociously wrestled them as other eye-witnesses rushed to their aid.
Estate agent Dennis Roodhardt, who was watching the drama unfold from his shop window, was the first to run over to the trio.
“Miss Corlett then threw a chair at Mr Roodhardt, he took hold of her, as they were trying to calm her down Miss Corlett sunk her teeth into Mr Roodhardt’s left lower arm,” prosecutor Andrew Forsyth said.
He said another individual alongside Andrew Camin tried to assist when the violence intensified, the prosecutor said.
“Together, they got Miss Corlett up from the floor, Miss Corlett then lunged her head in a forward action, headbutting Mr Camin in the face, causing him extreme pain and a nosebleed,” he continued.
Corlett launched abuse and struggled with the police who eventually detained her at Folkestone police station.
But during a struggle in her cell Corlett kicked PC Anita Silivestru in the face, which didn’t cause any lasting injuries.
The court heard Mr Roodhardt suffered a cut to the bridge of the nose, bruising and excessive swelling which prevented an X-Ray scan.
Mr Camin’s bite wound was treated with a tetanus and hepatitis booster.
PC Silivestru told the court: “I had an honest belief she would seriously hurt all of us if she wasn’t handcuffed and on the floor.”
CCTV footage played in court showed enraged Corlett talking on her phone before trying to send the furniture through the chip shop window.
It showed four onlookers having to restrain her on the ground at one point.
Corlett appeared visibly distressed in the dock, as footage showed the moment she delivered a powerful forward headbutt into Mr Roodhardt’s face.
The court heard weeks before the incident Corlett, of The Fairway, was handed a community order for similar matters.
Handing down eight months suspended for 18 months, Judge Catherine Brown told Corlett: “It is plain to me and anyone else in the court, that you were behaving like a wild animal, you weren’t behaving like a civilised human being.”
She added bite wounds “expose [victims] to the risk of infection - bite wounds are never a trivial matter," she said.
Judge Brown also told Corlett she lashed out with a "really forceful headbutt.”
But she said Corlett had appeared “genuinely ashamed and remorseful” in court, and highlighted there had been “no incident of concern” since the offending.
Judge Brown said Corlett has a potentially promising future as she works to address existing mental health issues.
When the judge told a visibly shaking Corlett she was being given a final chance, she replied: “Thank you.”
Natasha Spreadborough, mitigating, said Corlett branded her own behaviour “disgusting and embarrassing.”
She added the keen sportswoman is now “in a very different place than she was back then,” when she had been self-medicating with alcohol.
Corlett has since been employment with a timber frame company and is in a new relationship, she added.
Corlett pleaded guilty at the first opportunity to criminal damage, assaulting an emergency worker and two counts of occasioning actual bodily harm.
She was ordered to complete 100 hours of unpaid work and 20 probation days.
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Sean Axtell