Kirsti Elphick: Wells Crossing woman jailed for running over police officer in Grafton

A North Coast woman ran over a police officer just 48 hours after threatening to slit her neighbour’s throat. Here's how she was dealt with in court.

Elphick was eventually arrested by police. Generic image.

A Clarence Valley woman has landed herself behind bars after a spate of offending which saw her threaten to slit her neighbour’s throat before running over the leg of a police officer at “a high rate of acceleration”, a court has been told.

Wells Crossing woman Kirsti Elphick, 44, appeared via videolink at Grafton Local Court on Monday.

The 49-year-old pleaded guilty to a raft of offences including intimidation, not complying with a police direction, using an offensive weapon to prevent detention, assaulting a person to prevent apprehension, reckless driving and assaulting a police officer.

Behind bars. Generic image.

Not long after Elphick was granted bail for slapping someone in the face when they forgot to close the front gate, she became embroiled in a dispute with her neighbour over a horse called ‘Cruze’, court documents state.

On February 28, Elphick went to her neighbour’s front gate and started “swearing and ranting” about the horse.

“(The victim) has began recording video on his mobile phone … during the video, (Elphick) states ‘I’ll slit your throat and I’ll slit your families throat’,” police facts state.

Two days later, on March 1, when Elphick went to Grafton Police Station to report for bail, the police officer told her there was an alert out for her arrest.

Elphick became “agitated” and ran out of the station, ignoring the warnings of the police officer who chased her, a court heard.

Elphick fled the police station. Generic image.

When Elphick reached her car, there was an unrestrained dog trying to bite the officer who was yelling, “Don’t you go. You’re under arrest, ”court documents state.

“ (Elphick then) put the vehicle into gear and … immediately drove away at a high rate of acceleration while (the police officer) was protruding from the vehicle,” police facts state.

“The acceleration forced (the officer) to be thrown from the vehicle, with his left leg landing on its side underneath the vehicle.”

A court heard Elphick then ran over the officer’s left foot and ankle and it was only by “sheer good fortune” he was not seriously injured.

A passenger in the car later said he felt the bump of the vehicle driving over the officer’s foot, police state in the documents.

Elphick drove north along Prince St, Grafton (pictured).

From here, Elphick sped through the centre of Grafton, at one point reaching 120km/h in a 50km/h zone, according to police facts.

Her escape was short lived, however, and she soon was pulled over “for reasons unknown,” the documents state.

In court the defence said Elphick’s mother had recently committed suicide so her behaviour was out of character.

The court was also told she lives with complex post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and was assaulted in custody since her arrest on March 1.

The prosecution said Elphick’s offending was aggravated by her decision to flee from the officer.

“She didn’t even stop to check that he’s okay,” the prosecutor said, referring to when Elphick ran over the police officer’s leg.

Magistrate Jeff Linden described Elphick’s offending as “extremely serious”, adding “anything could have happened”.

Elphick was convicted of the offences and sentenced to 12 months imprisonment, with a two month non-parole period.