UPDATE October 11, 2022: Following the original publication of this article in 2019, the case against Karen Goonewardene was dismissed on October 12, 2020 and the defendant was acquitted. We are happy to set the record straight. 

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A WOMAN accused of attacking a police officer when she was caught drink-driving is due in court today.

Karen Goonewardene of Westbrook Street, Blewbury, near Didcot, is charged with one count of drink-driving and one count of assaulting an emergency worker.

The 53-year-old was given a breathalyser test on the street where she lives on Friday, November 29, which police say came out at 53 micrograms of alcohol in 100ml of breath over the legal limit of 35mcg.

Read also: Latest results from Oxford Magistrates' Court

Police then say that Goonewardene attacked an inspector on neighbouring Westbrook Green.

The charge states that she 'assaulted Inspector 308 Lewis, an emergency worker, namely a police inspector, acting in the exercise of his functions as such a worker, by beating him'.

She now faces a maximum penalty of a six-month prison sentence and/ or an unlimited fine.

She is due to appear at Oxford Magistrates Court this morning.