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Former MP 'went ballistic in hotel'
Former Peterborough MP Helen Clark screamed and swore at staff after after getting drunk and losing control in a hotel bar, a court heard on Wednesday.
Former Peterborough MP Helen Clark screamed and swore at staff after after getting drunk and losing control in a hotel bar, a court heard on Wednesday.Ex-Labour MP Clark (54) went "ballistic" after a barmaid at the Great Northern Hotel, in Station Road, Peterborough, said she would not serve any more alcohol.
She also called police investigating a complaint against her "pigs", a district judge was told.
When they cautioned her, she told them: "I remember in the '70s when police were referred to as pigs. That's what you are, pigs. Look everyone, I'm being arrested by pigs."
Clark, who represented Peterborough between 1997 and 2005, denies using threatening words and behaviour and being drunk and disorderly in the Old Soke Bar at the hotel on June 15 last year.
Peterborough Magistrates' Court was told that she had drunk four glasses of wine with her husband and a friend.
But when barmaid Susana Arsalani refused them more alcohol, Clark started yelling abuse.
The court heard Mrs Arsalani had filmed part of the "prolonged outburst" on her mobile phone and the footage had made its way onto internet website YouTube.
The clip, which was played in court, showed Mrs Clark shouting: "Why am I being treated like this? I'm being humiliated here," before crying hysterically.
Taking the stand, Mrs Arsalani said: "She kept screaming at me and insulting me and telling me I couldn't speak English."
She added: "I was terrified and intimidated. I was only doing my job."
Under cross-examination, Clark's lawyer Quinn Hawkins suggested Mrs Arsalani had exaggerated her account.
He added: "You knew Mrs Clark was a public figure and there could be capital made from taking images and posting them on YouTube."
But Mrs Arsalani said she had only filmed the incident for her own "protection" and denied posting the film on the internet.
She said: "I'm a bar worker, I'm a nobody. I just want justice. I just want the person who treated me that way to say I'm sorry, I was wrong."
Barbara Sewell, a friend of hotel owner Peter Boizot, tried to calm Clark down, and told the court: "I felt she was out of control. I'm of the opinion she had too much to drink."
Assistant manager Sven Nel also described Clark as being "intoxicated".
He said: "She was being abusive towards Susana.
"She was crying, screaming. I tried to calm her down. Mr Boizot came to my rescue and managed to escort her out of the premises and into a taxi.
"I felt intimidated and nervous, Susanna was almost in tears."
In a police interview with Clark read out in court, she accepted she had been "furious" after service was refused and "gone ballistic".
She said: "I'm very sorry I should have expressed my feelings in such an unguarded way.
"I take no pride in shouting and yelling in a public place. I was doing it not on my behalf, but my husband's.
"The wiser course of action would have been to let it go, but you can always be wiser after the event."
The trial continues.
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Wednesday 08 February 2012
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