Police officer drunk on Fireball cocktails beat up her mom in stranger’s automotive, yelling ‘you by no means have something good to say about me’, disciplinary panel hears
A police officer beat up her mum in the back of a stranger’s car in a vicious attack after getting drunk on Fireball cocktails, a disciplinary panel heard.
PC Leanne Counter repeatedly punched her mother, Julie, after a well-meaning member of the public agreed to give them a lift home.
The incident happened after a family Christmas erupted into chaos on Boxing Day 2023.
The Counter family had been to the pub and then went back to PC Counter’s sister’s home on Teesside. However, the constable’s behaviour became so rowdy that her sister, Lyndsey, threw her out, with her mother agreed to make sure she got home safely.
The pair got into a taxi which was bound for PC Counter’s home, but her behaviour towards her mother was so alarming that the cabbie drove away after they pulled into Wolviston service station, County Durham.
Mark Ley-Morgan, for Cleveland Police, said Counter had been yelling: ‘Some Mam you are, f*** off, you never have anything good to say about me.’
The taxi driver threatened to call the police, at which point Mrs Counter told him: ‘She’s in the police.’
A furious Leanne Counter yelled: ‘You have ruined my cover’ and later called her mother a ‘c***.’
PC Leanne Counter of Cleveland Police repeatedly punched her mother, Julie, after a well-meaning member of the public agreed to give them a lift home
Mark Ley-Morgan, for Cleveland Police, said Counter had been yelling: ‘Some Mam you are, f*** off, you never have anything good to say about me’
It was while mother and daughter were abandoned at the service station that they encountered Lewis Failes and his brother in law, Mark, who had stopped to blow up a tyre on Mr Failes’s car.
In a statement to the police disciplinary panel, Mr Failes said: ‘I was approached at the service station by a lady in her mid to late fifties. A younger female was shouting at her and the older woman was trying to calm her down.
‘Both had been drinking but the younger woman was a lot more drunk. I recall the older woman telling her she would get into trouble if she did not calm down.
‘She asked me to give her a lift because her daughter had joined the police and she wanted to get her away before she got into trouble.’
Mr Failes agreed and set off along the A19 towards MIddlesbrough with his brother-in-law in the passenger seat.
He added: ‘As we were driving along I could feel the car bouncing about. She had moved across the back seat to get to her mother.
While under investigation, PC Counter was asked whether it was an isolated incident and she confessed that on a previous occasion she had put her father’s girlfriend in a headlock during ‘an altercation’
A taxi ditched PC Counter and her mother at a service station in County Durham
The police officer reportedly had no recollection of the attack until her father reminded her the next day
‘Mark got up and climbed into the back seat. I was close to pulling over and putting them out, I had only had the car a couple of days and I did not want it getting damaged.’
Julie Counter was left with a cut under her nostril, a swollen left cheek bone and bruising to her forearm, which she had raised to defend herself.
She told police investigators: ‘I have been crying because it was my daughter who attacked me. I cannot even look at Leanne.’
The hearing was told that Counter was arrested on suspicion of assault causing actual bodily harm and answered ‘no comment’ to all questions.
So far no criminal charges have arisen from the incident.
PC Counter reportedly had no recollection of the attack until her father let her know the following day.
She texted a police colleague to say: ‘I am not in the good books with my family,’ blaming the Fireball drinks she had consumed for the fact she could not even remember the assault.
She told her colleague she accepted what her father had told her, saying: ‘If he says I hit her then I must have done.’
While under investigation she was asked whether it was an isolated incident and PC Counter confessed that on a previous occasion she had put her father’s girlfriend in a headlock during ‘an altercation.’
Leanne Counter was today fired from her job as a constable and barred from policing for life, she showed no emotion when given the verdict.
Ian Wright, chairman of the disciplinary panel, said: ‘Immediate dismissal is the only outcome that will serve that maintain public confidence.’
Mr Ley-Morgan of Cleveland Police said the attack breached the standards expected of police officers and was discreditable conduct which amounted to gross misconduct.
