At one point she got out of her car and hit one of the residents
A drunken and aggressive woman caused chaos in a Hull street late at night when she repeatedly drove her car up and down, hitting other vehicles while “lurching” around and revving up. Worried residents feared for their cars during her reckless antics and they told her to stop but she got out of her car and hit one of them.
Mother-of-five Rachel Barley later turned nasty with police and lashed out at two of them, Hull Crown Court heard. Barley, 41, of Inglemire Lane, Hull, admitted dangerous driving, two offences of assaulting police officers as emergency workers, assaulting a man, two offences of causing criminal damage to cars and others of failing to provide a breath sample and having no licence on January 19.
Samantha Laws, prosecuting, said that police were called to an ongoing incident in Minton Street, off Clough Road, Hull, at about 11.10pm. Mobile phone pictures showed Barley getting in and out of a red Mazda car while having an argument with someone.
A man was heard saying “Get away from my car” and “She has tried to run me over twice. She’s going to jail for this. She has hit about 20 cars down here. She is off her head and has hit every car.”
He said: “Look at the state of her. What the f*** is she doing? She is out of control. She has smashed every single car out here.” He asked Barley: “What are you doing?”
Barley was getting in and out of the car and was driving up and down the street before crashing into cars. She twice hit a man who was on the scene.
“She drove off and the police commenced a search,” said Miss Laws. Barley was found inside a pub in Ings Lane. She was uncooperative and was taken to the floor and put in handcuffs before being escorted to a police vehicle.
At the police station, officers tried to walk her to the custody desk but she was very aggressive and started lashing out at them. She was taken to the floor but kicked out at two officers, causing bruising to one of them.
She failed to provide a breath specimen. The man who was assaulted by Barley later said that he was worried for his safety.
“I genuinely believed she was trying to kill me,” he said. Barley deliberately drove towards him three or four times. The police who were assaulted later said that her behaviour was “vile” and “distasteful”.
During police interview, Barley made no comment to all questions. She had convictions for 19 previous offences between November 2002 and August 2021. They included drink-driving, resisting or obstructing police and assault.
Amber Hobson, mitigating, said that Barley was ashamed of her behaviour that night. “She is absolutely disgusted with herself,” said Miss Hobson. “This is clearly terrible offending.”
Barley had been drinking and she “reached boiling point” after a culmination of pressures. “At the time, she was in a spiral,” said Miss Hobson.
“She has acknowledged the effect that alcohol has on her. Alcohol has a significant impact on her and her thought processes. She is clearly ashamed of and disgusted with the person that she is when she is in drink. She is no fire cracker.”
Barley had previously been a cleaner with her own business and she had done a 100-mile walk for charity. “This is a defendant who wants to change,” said Miss Hobson. “She is motivated to change.”
Recorder Caroline Sellars said that it was “appalling behaviour” and Barley could easily have killed someone after drinking a full bottle of gin and then driving. She was arguing with and hitting a passenger in the car.
The passenger got out and Barley revved the engine because she was so drunk. She lost control of her driving and reversed towards the end of a cul-de-sac.
Residents were concerned at how close she was getting to vehicles. A man told her to stop but she got out of her car and hit him. She came back and hit him again and was abusive.
Barley was aggressively and quickly “lurching” the car forward towards him before heading off onto Clough Road on the wrong side of the road. “It’s luck rather than judgement that that nobody was injured,” said Recorder Sellars.
Barley was given a suspended prison sentence of 17 months and two weeks, with a 120-day alcohol abstinence monitoring order and 15 days’ rehabilitation. She was banned from driving for three years and she must pass an extended retest before she can drive legally again.