Chatham: Reanna Turner admits racially abuse and assault
Published: 00:01, 03 June 2017
A young woman spat at and racially abused a security guard while she was out with a group of friends.
Reanna Turner even sprayed the man with a fire extinguisher during the incident last September.
Security guard Albert Anyika was asked to check on a group of teenagers said to be fooling about in Chatham town centre.
But when he approached the group he was racially abused and told by Turner to go back to his own country.
When he tried to reason with them, the 18-year-old spat at him and called him a derogatory racist name.
She then picked up the extinguisher and started spraying him.
Mr Anyika also had food thrown at him.
Later, when the group moved to the nearby McDonald’s restaurant in the High Street, Turner stole a muffin so the police were called.
The teen, of Montgomery Avenue, Chatham, was later charged with racially aggravated harassment, assault, and theft.
She admitted all three offences when she appeared before magistrates in Medway.
Prosecutor Sarah Worsley said Mr Anyika had not only been verbally abused but also assaulted.
Magistrates heard Turner had no other convictions but had recently spent time in psychiatric unit as she had had mental health issues.
She had now gone though a successful treatment programme and had changed her lifestyle and was no longer hanging around with bad people.
Robin Murray, defending, said: “She was very unwell and her recollection of the incident is extremely poor.
“She was using illegal substances but is no longer and her medication is working very well.”
Magistrates fined her £165 for the racial abuse offence, ordered she pay £150 compensation to Mr Anyika for spitting at him and was given 12-month conditional discharge for the theft.
Turner was also ordered to pay £1.19 compensation to McDonald’s for stealing the muffin and £85 costs.
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Lynn Cox