A mother who used her Range Rover to try to nudge an Insulate Britain protester off a road while she was on the school run has been banned from driving.
Sherrilyn Speid, of Grays, Essex, was taking her son to school on the morning of October 25 when the road near the M25 came to a standstill due to three activists staging a sit-down protest.
Footage shown in court showed her get out of her car in the queue of traffic before telling them to ‘move out of the way now’.
She added: ‘My son needs to go to school and I need to go to work’.
After the protesters refused to budge, she drove her car at them, after which one could be heard screaming.
Speid pleaded guilty to one count of dangerous driving before Southend Magistrates’ Court on Monday.
Prosecutors admitted she was using the brakes ‘heavily’ and stopped near the protester but said there was a ‘risk of injury’ even if none were caused.
A charge of assault in which a protester claimed they had been beaten was dropped after the prosecution admitted it would produce no evidence for it.
The 35-year-old, who was granted unconditional bail, will be sentenced in May, and has been disqualified from driving in the meantime.
She told LBC on Tuesday morning: ‘It’s a huge injustice for me. I feel devastated, I feel let down.
‘I’ve got no previous convictions, I’ve worked hard my whole life and I literally just wanted to get my son to school.
‘He has anxiety, he’s just started Year Seven. I needed to be there for him, to support him.
‘He’s had 18 months of school prior to that through the pandemic. Education is really important to me. I just feel very let down.’
Speid, who teaches personal finance and life management skills to children with learning difficulties, said that even if she gets her licence back, the conviction’s effect on her insurance premium will damage her business and her son’s life.
She adedd: ‘I’m not able to drive, I can’t get my son to football now which he enjoys and flourishes at, I can’t take him to school,’ she said.
‘He’s got a really severe leg injury, he’s on crutches today and has had to get on a bus.
‘Obviously I’m too scared to even speak my mind at this point because I know the police are not going to be on my side, they’re going to be against me, and I wouldn’t be able to do anything.’
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.
