Daughter of police chief sentenced

A CHIEF constable's daughter who assaulted two policemen in her father's force after drinking a litre of strong cider was yesterday sentenced to 150 hours' community service.

Frances Whitehouse, 18, of Brunswick Square, Hove, the daughter of Paul Whitehouse, the Chief Constable of Sussex, was convicted last month on two counts of assault and one of using threatening or abusive words or behaviour.

Brighton magistrates court heard how Whitehouse, who denied all three charges, pushed and swore at one policeman and kicked another, injuring his neck, after they intervened in a row between her and her boyfriend. Sentencing her to 150 hours' community service and ordering her to pay pounds 250 costs and pounds 400 compensation to the injured officer, the stipendiary magistrate, James Shrimpton, said: "I have to tell you that these offences are serious enough for a community penalty. People very often get jailed for kicking and pushing police officers, and rightly so."

During Whitehouse's one-day trial, the court was told she assaulted Constable Paul Ashman and swore at him after he asked if she was all right while she argued with her boyfriend in a Brighton street on Bank Holiday Monday, 5 April. As she was being driven in handcuffs to Brighton police station she kicked Constable Anthony Spalding on the left side of the face and neck.