By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS
A POLICE officer has an anxious three-month wait after being spat in the face and bitten on the arm by an accused shoplifter in Dandenong police station.
The constable had arrested and interviewed Anna Louise Warry, 27, of Dandenong, after she allegedly stole shoes from a Dandenong Plaza store on 21 March.
Warry’s lawyer told Dandenong Magistrates’ Court last Monday that Warry had apologised to police for her behaviour, assuring them she didn’t carry transmissible diseases such as HIV or hepatitis-C.
“She said there’s just no excuses,” the lawyer said. “It doesn’t seem to be a feature of her (past) offending behaviour.”
He said at the time Warry, who was on methadone treatment, was “off the planet” on a mix of pharmaceutical drugs Xanax and benzodiazepine.
The court was told the constable’s blood test results would be known in three months.
Magistrate Jack Vandersteen said the assault would “affect that police officer’s life on so many levels”.
“Spitting in one’s face is unacceptable. There’s orifices there in which saliva can enter. That’s aside from the biting,” he said.
According to a police summary, Warry became “extremely aggressive” when told she was going to be moved to a holding cell.
While restrained, Warry bit the constable on the right forearm for several seconds, drawing blood and causing red marks and swelling on the arm, police allege.
As she was led to the custody area, Warry allegedly turned and spat in the constable’s face. She also lunged at and tried to spit on a sergeant while in the holding cell.
Warry had been on bail for a list of theft and shoplifting offences since 2009 including the theft of more than $23,000 of jewellery from her Waverley Gardens employer, a 52-inch TV from a electric goods shop, a worker’s $800 mobile phone from a staff room, and more than $1000 of cosmetics and earrings.
Warry’s lawyer said she was regarded as “very personable” at her retail job.
“I take it she was reasonably effective. She realises she will never be able to work in retail again, which was something she enjoyed.”
He said Warry’s offending seemed to be linked to spikes of benzodiazepine use – usually triggered by continued family rejection.
She also required treatment for a borderline personality disorder, her lawyer said.
Warry was sentenced to 30 days’ jail and given a community corrections order for unlawful assault, theft and weapons offences.
