A CHURCH minister threatened police officers with his ‘contacts in the IRA’ after crashing his car while three times over the drink-drive limit.
Reverend Lee Stephens attacked police officers and paramedics who attended the scene after he collided with a family’s Ford car in Essex, hospitalising a father and his two young children, aged five and six.
Following the crash in Billericay, 31-year-old Stephens, who hails from Co Armagh, punched a paramedic, spat at a police officer and assaulted another paramedic while she was treating him, Basildon Magistrates’ Court heard on Friday, August 1.
The abusive behaviour continued at Basildon Hospital, where the Richill-native told police he had contacts in the IRA who would ‘blow them up’.
Stephens, who was working at the Elim Pentecostal church in Ingatestone, Essex at the time, had lost his sister two weeks before the indecent took place, the court heard last week.
On the day of the crash, the pastor, who was taking anti-depressants for stress at work, was thrown out of the Forge Pub in Billericay.
An off-duty police officer arrested Stephens at the scene of the crash and a breath test showed that he had 108 micrograms of alcohol in his breath per 100ml. The legal limit is 35 micrograms.
When an ambulance crew arrived to treat Stephens and the injured family, he began acting aggressively, Sam Doyle, for the prosecution, told the Basildon Magistrates' Court.
Stephens began swearing and punched Sergeant Mark Ammon twice in the leg, before spitting at another officer and punching paramedic Gary Harvey in the kidneys.
He said: “I am a pastor, let me go or you will lose your jobs. I will kill everyone — I know the IRA.”
This month Stephens, who told the court he did not remember anything about the ‘shameful’ incident, admitted assault, assaulting a police officer, common assault, failing to provide a specimen of blood and using threatening words and behaviour.
He was sentenced to 16 weeks in jail, suspended for 12 months, and ordered to pay his victims £250 compensation.
Magistrates chairman Balbira Bal said emergency services ‘deserved respect’.
