LAST CHANCE | 

Woman who beat up dad’s bride on wedding day avoids jail for drink driving

Last chance for mum-of-one

J

Today at 07:00

A chef who beat up her dad’s bride on their wedding day has narrowly avoided jail for drink driving and spitting at police officers.

Mum-of-one Bethany Loyal (28) was given a probation order at Laganside Magistrates Court in Belfast despite breaching a suspended sentence for the bridal brawl.

She pleaded guilty to assault on police, attempted criminal damage, driving with excess alcohol, possession of a class C drug and disorderly behaviour.

Loyal had also been charged with driving while unfit, resisting arrest, attempted criminal damage and failure to provide a sample, but these were withdrawn by prosecutors.

The court heard police were called to a report of a suspected drink driver outside Ownies Bar and Bistro on Joymount Street in Carrickfergus shortly before 1am on November 19 last year.

A boozed-up Loyal was found in the driver seat of a brown Toyota Aygo.

Her speech was slurred, she gave off a “strong smell of alcohol” and she refused to provide a breath test.

Prosecutors said she was placed in handcuffs and “minimal force” was used to remove her from the vehicle, at which point she began to lash out at officers.

“She repeatedly kicked the inner door of the police car and a van, and was warned several times not to do that before spitting at a constable”, a Public Prosecution Service lawyer told the court.

She was also “aggressive and volatile” in custody, with cops discovering her in possession of the potent benzodiazepine pregabalin, with six tablets missing from a strip of nine.

It was revealed in court that Loyal has a record for violence, including a conviction for assault on her estranged father’s bride on their wedding day.

Defence lawyers said she was the sole carer for her three-year-old daughter and that, according to her pre-sentence report, she had displayed a “good degree of insight into her offending”.

Loyal was described as having “a significant mental health background, including PTSD”, with the court hearing she was brought up “in and out of foster care”.

Sentencing her, Deputy District Judge Anne Marshall said: “This is the second time you are in front of a court for violent offences, and you have now breached a suspended sentence, meaning you should be going to custody for five months.

“But I have read the pre-sentence report, (and) you have engaged with therapy and have worked hard, but what you cannot do is go around spitting at police officers.

“If you do that again, you will be going in to Hydebank and your daughter will be going into care.”

Loyal, from Mill Terrace in Carrickfergus, was disqualified from driving for a year.

She was also handed a 12-month probation order, 60 hours of community service and a £200 fine.