Melbourne beautician Natalie Bonett faces court over second violent police encounter
A Wallan woman filmed screaming as police dragged her out of her vehicle at a Covid checkpoint has faced court over a second violent encounter.
Police & Courts
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A Melbourne beautician whose video went viral of police dragging her from her car at a Covid checkpoint has faced court over another violent encounter with the constabulary.
Natalie Bonett, 29, made headlines when she refused to share her details with police after being stopped at the Kalkallo checkpoint in Melbourne’s north in October 2020.
She shared the video, which depicted her screaming while an officer leant in the window to unclip her seatbelt before dragging her out of the car, on her social media.
The beauty business owner also posted images of bruises she sustained to her body, claiming four officers were “rough” and pinned her to the ground and handcuffed her.
She said she had been left “shaking, crying and in complete disbelief that I was treated this way”.
The Herald Sun can now reveal that weeks later, Bonett was involved in another conflict with police in Brunswick West.
On November 9, 2020 she lashed out at two officers who were trying to detain her during a roadside intercept, in which she threw a tyre deflation device into an open lane of a freeway, placing other motorists in danger of serious injury.
Bonett faced the County Court on Monday where she has pleaded guilty to conduct endangering persons and two counts of assaulting an emergency worker on duty.
The court heard the officers had recognised Bonett’s mental health struggles and enacted their powers to detain her for medical help, but she resisted.
Expert evidence was provided that she was in the midst of a panic attack and in such a heightened state that “she probably had very little conscious control of her reflexes”.
Her lawyer Luke Howson submitted Bonett’s moral culpability was reduced due to her severe mental illness and post-traumatic stress disorder diagnosis.
Judge Duncan Allen gave Bonett a chance to avoid a criminal record and deferred her sentence for five months.
“This offending occurred more than two years ago,” Judge Allen said.
“There’s been no subsequent offending.”
He ordered that she remain on bail for that period and undergo the court’s integrated services program, focusing on mental health treatment to “rebuild your life”.
If she successfully completes the program, then she is likely to be released on a good behaviour bond, Judge Allen said.
Asked if she agreed with that plan, she replied: “I do.”
Bonett will return to court to be sentenced in July.
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