A woman high on cocaine escaped from a police car while half-naked - triggering a huge manhunt.

Roma Lawson then sunk her teeth into an officer after running through the streets of Margate without her trousers.

The 34-year-old porn star been arrested on suspicion of drug-driving after crashing her car into a van in the town.

Having failed a roadside drug test, officers attempted to convey Lawson, of Herne Bay, to a police station when the chaos unfolded.

Sitting on the back seat, Lawson secretly undid her belt-buckle, waited for the vehicle to stop, then launched herself between two officers in the front seats, prompting a struggle.

While they grappled, one officer grabbed her leg when Lawson wriggled free, leaving her trousers with the police.

Naked from the waist down, Lawson fled through the streets of Margate, managing to evade the authorities as she sought refuge at a friend’s home.

“Miss Lawson was at large, at around midday, naked from the waist down,” prosecutor Eleanor Scott-Davies told Canterbury Crown Court on Tuesday.

Police traced Lawson to a friend’s address and re-arrested her 90 minutes later.

But following concerns over her welfare she was taken to a nearby hospital, where she continued to make attempts to run, the court heard.

She tried sprinting towards doors and, after a number of officers restrained her, Lawson “lunged towards PC Baker and bit her on her thigh causing bruising”, the prosecutor added.

Lawson, who has 10 previous convictions, pleaded guilty to escaping from lawful custody and assaulting an emergency worker before trial.

The court heard her previous criminality includes common assault, robbery, possession of cocaine and failing to stop after an accident.

In 2010, KentOnline reported how she left her best friend for dead after a horror crash where she suffered a fractured skull. Lawson – who was twice the drink-drive limit – hit three parked cars and flipped her white convertible Suzuki Vitara.

On Tuesday, Kieran Brand, representing Lawson, said her “chaotic lifestyle” erupted after a number of volatile relationships, a family tragedy and battling a cocaine addiction.

He said Lawson, a carer for her mother, had stopped using drugs since September and “expressed remorse” towards PC Baker.

Mr Brand explained Lawson - who has worked under the name Romana Ryder, appearing in adult films Pyjama Party and Teacher’s Pet - wished to hand her bite-victim a letter stressing she “had no reason to assault her”.

Handing down eight months’ custody suspended for a year-and-a-half, Judge Catherine Brown told Lawson: “Biting is… something someone completely out of control does.”

The judge told Lawson she was under the influence of cocaine when she attacked the officer in May last year but has since shown a “prospect of rehabilitation”.

Lawson, of Central Parade, was ordered to complete 20 probation days and pay £100 compensation.