Sydney mother assaulted taxi driver after sad song sparked drunk rage
AN argument over a sad song on the radio sparked a wild assault where a drunk Sydney mother grabbed her taxi driver’s steering wheel, beat him and threatened to have her family members kill him.
St George Shire Standard
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AN argument over a sad song on the radio sparked a wild assault where a drunk Sydney mother grabbed her taxi driver’s steering wheel, beat him and threatened to have her family members kill him.
Kurnell woman Natalee Fox, 45, was convicted of assaulting and intimidating a male taxi driver, fare evasion and assaulting police after drinking two bottles of wine with a work friend on August 16, which she said caused her to black out.
Fox’s lawyer told the court she remember nothing about that night and accepted the Allawah taxi driver’s account that she cried about the song on the radio and asked him to switch it off before calling him a “pathetic loser”.
Fox then noticed the $115 fare from the Circular Quay bar to her former Kirrawee home and refused to pay.
“The victim locked the car and told the victim to pay whatever she could,” the police facts read.
The accused stated that she was going to call family members and that “if they come here they will kill you’.”
Fox then grabbed the taxi driver’s steering wheel with both hands and attempted to move it before he pulled over and called police, at which point she struck him in the left ear with her hand and began to scratch at his clothes.
The furious tirade continued when Fox arrived at the police station.
“Police approached the accused, who said the taxi driver was “a dickhead, a crazy nut who doesn’t like Shire people,” the police facts read.
CCTV footage at Sutherland Police Station then captured an “aggressive, abusive” Fox pushing a male constable in the chest, causing him to stumble before she was taken to the holding cells where she kicked the perspex doors “30 to 50 times”.
Fox was fined $400 for the fare evasion, ordered to compensate the driver for $115 and sentenced to a conditional release order for 12 months.
Sutherland Local Court Magistrate Glenn Bartley rejected a submission Fox’s past treatment for breast cancer and prescription medication use had significantly influenced her alcohol-affected demeanour.
“She told her oncologist she is aware of the effect alcohol is having on her life,” Mr Bartley said.
“This is not a one-off brain snap – she’s drinking alcohol when she knows that she shouldn’t.”
Mr Bartley also rejected the lawyer’s submission that Fox’s actions were motivated by terror when she was locked in the car, as the taxi driver had told her he was going to the police station.
Fox is a single mother of two teenage children who works at a logistics company as a sales executive.