Jasmine Sheralyn Margare Buckland: Woman fronts court after biting cop in back of ambulance

The court heard the woman sank her teeth into the police officer’s arm and held on for several seconds while he was trying to prevent her from hurting herself and others.

IN COURT: The woman pleaded guilty to assaulting a police officer in an outburst in the back of an ambulance. Photo Bev Lacey / The Chronicle

A Warwick woman has pleaded guilty to assault after she bit the police officer trying to restrain her during a violent episode in the back of an ambulance.

Police were called to assist paramedics at a Dragon Street home on December 24 last year, where Jasmine Sheralyn Margare Buckland was suffering a mental health episode.

Warwick Magistrates Court was told the 22-year-old was sedated and put in an ambulance to be taken to hospital, with both paramedics and a police escort in the back with her for safety.

Police prosecutor Steve de Lissa said Buckland slipped free from her restraints a short way into the journey and began “acting aggressively, thrashing her arms and legs around”.

“Her behaviour posed significant risk to her and Queensland Ambulance Service personnel in the back of the vehicle, so the officer reached around her in a type of bear hug in an attempt to prevent her hurting herself,” Sergeant de Lissa said.

“She bit his left forearm, clamping down for three or four seconds before releasing. He sustained a defined bite mark with bruising and broken skin around the area.”

Buckland appeared in court with a minor criminal history, but it did not include prior violent offending.

Defence lawyer Amber Acreman told the court her client was experiencing a severe mental health episode at the time, which combined with the medication taken on the night left her with little memory of the assault.

Ms Acreman added that the mother was hospitalised for at least a month following the incident, and was still struggling with mental health and drug rehabilitation.

“She instructed me she just wanted to sit up in the ambulance, and that’s what prompted her conduct,” she said.

“She was extremely stressed at the time and that’s also contributed to events that unfolded that evening. She’s very embarrassed and ashamed of her conduct.”

Buckland pleaded guilty to one count of assault occasioning bodily harm.

She was placed on probation for nine months and no conviction was recorded.

Originally published as Jasmine Sheralyn Margare Buckland: Woman fronts court after biting cop in back of ambulance