Woman jailed over high speed chase, threw projectiles at police car

Nikita Sherbourne-Munro (29) was found guilty in the Timaru District Court after a judge-alone trial last year of a charge of aggravated assault. Photo / ODT

Throwing projectiles at pursuing officers during a high-speed police chase has landed a woman in prison.

Nikita Sherbourne-Munro was found guilty in the Timaru District Court after a judge-alone trial last year of a charge of aggravated assault.

The charge related to events on May 3, 2020, when she was in a car speeding down Thames Highway in Oamaru.

At her sentencing in the Dunedin District Court yesterday, Judge David Robinson said Sherbourne-Munro was an unwilling passenger in the vehicle, and when police pursued them, she threw objects from the vehicle.

The 29-year-old claimed she was "intending to make the chase so dangerous the police would stop".

Stuff reported the two pursuing police officers testified at trial that they "lost count" of the objects thrown.

They said the items included blocks of wood, cans of alcohol and a methamphetamine pipe.

One of the officers said they were concerned if one of the projectiles had gone through their windscreen, it "would have killed us".

The judge said Sherbourne-Munro reacted "badly" when one of the officers tried to arrest her, punching and kicking and causing a dislocated finger.

Sherbourne-Munro defended the assault charge on the basis she was the victim of a police assault.

She testified at trial that one of the officers had pulled her hair and punched her.

Sherbourne-Munro pleaded guilty to a charge of endangering transport.

Judge David Robinson — who presided over her trial — said at her sentencing Sherbourne-Munro's personal circumstances were some of the worst he had seen.

"You desperately need assistance," he said.

The Oamaru woman had previously expressed interest in attending residential rehabilitation programmes and, despite her recent failure to complete one, Judge Robinson encouraged her not to give up.

Sherbourne-Munro also faced sentence on charges from several other incidents: drug-impaired driving, unlawfully taking a motor vehicle, careless driving, failure to report damage and two other assaults, one on a police officer.

She was imprisoned for 20 months, ordered to pay $400 reparation and disqualified from driving for 12 months.