A Bishopston woman who pushed and kicked police when violence erupted at a Bristol Kill the Bill protest has been jailed. Rose Lazarus was captured on camera for some two hours as trouble flared outside Bridewell Police Station on March 21 last year.
Lazarus, 21, of Beverley Road, denied a charge of riot but pleaded guilty to violent disorder. She appeared at Bristol Crown Court for sentence today (August 8, 2022)
Judge James Patrick jailed her for 14 months. He told Lazarus: "This was two hours of active offending and encouragement of physical violence towards police.
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"Significant violence was going on around you. You had ample opportunity to leave the scene but you didn't."
Ellen McAnaw, prosecuting, told the court Lazarus was at the front of protestors for a considerable time and kicked out at officers with shields. Miss McAnaw said: "She pushed other people into police.
"She swore at police, she joined in anti-police chanting and she contributed to the atmosphere."
Helen Law, defending, said her client attended the protest mindful of the Sarah Everard case. This was the 33-year-old woman raped and murdered by Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens some two weeks before the Bristol protest.
Miss Law said: "She has remorse and disgust at her own behaviour. She was struggling from mental illness, struggling from a deeply traumatic life event.
"She does recognize the error of her ways and the shame because of it."
The court heard Lazarus had started a degree at Bristol University. But, having lost her support network due to the Covid pandemic, she left the course in February 2021.
Miss Law told the court her client had gone on to study psychology and sociology at the University of the West of England. She has also been undergoing therapy to help her engage with issues and confront them, the court heard.
Miss Law said: "She is less likely to reoffend if she has the opportunity to continue therapy rather than have her future derailed by one evening in which she acted entirely out of character." She urged that any sentence of imprisonment be suspended.
*Christopher Hind, 38, whose address was given as Stottbury Road, Bristol, pleaded guilty to violent disorder at the same incident. Judge Patrick adjourned his case, pending a probation report, for sentence on September 8.
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