A cop who beat up her mum after getting drunk on ‘Fireball’ cocktails was sacked from her job today.

PC Leanne Counter repeatedly punched her mother, Julie, after a Good Samaritan agreed to give them a lift home, a disciplinary panel heard. The force of the attack made Lewis Failes’ car “bounce” as it was being driven along a dual carriageway and a passenger in the car was forced to climb into the back seat to protect Julie Counter from her daughter’s assault.

The Cleveland police officer was so drunk on the potent whisky cocktails that she knew nothing of the incident until her father came to her home the following day to rebuke her. She showed no emotion as she was fired from her job as a constable with Cleveland police and barred from policing for life.

Ian Wright, panel chairman, said: “Immediate dismissal is the only outcome that will serve to maintain public confidence.” The incident happened after a family Christmas erupted into chaos on Boxing Day 2023. The Counter family had been to the pub and then went back to PC Counter’s sister’s home on Teesside. The constable’s behaviour became so rowdy that her sister, Lyndsey, threw her out and her mother agreed to take her home safely.

But her behaviour was so alarming that a cabbie drove off after leaving them both at Wolviston service station, Co Durham. Mark Ley-Morgan, for Cleveland Police, said Counter was yelling: “Some Mam you are, f*** off, you never have anything good to say about me.”

The taxi driver threatened to call the police, at which point Mrs Counter told him: “She’s in the police.” A furious Leanne Counter yelled: “You have ruined my cover” and using a four-letter word to describe her mother. It was while at the service station that they encountered Lewis Failes and his brother in law, Mark, who had stopped to blow up a tyre on Mr Failes’ car.

Mr Failes said in a statement: “I was approached at the service station by a lady in her mid to late fifties. A younger female was shouting at her and the older woman was trying to calm her down. Both had been drinking but the younger woman was a lot more drunk. I recall the older woman telling her she would get into trouble if she did not calm down. She asked me to give her a lift because her daughter had joined the police and she wanted to get her away before she got into trouble.”

Mr Failes agreed and set off along the A19 towards MIddlesbrough with his brother-in-law in the passenger seat. As they drove along he could hear PC Counter being abusive to her mum. He added: “As we were driving along I could feel the car bouncing about. She had moved across the back seat to get to her mother. Mark got up and climbed into the back seat. I was close to pulling over and putting them out, I had only had the car a couple of days and I did not want it getting damaged.”

Julie Counter was left with a cut under her nostril, a swollen left cheek bone and bruising to her forearm, which she had raised to defend herself. She told police: “I have been crying because it was my daughter who attacked me. I cannot even look at Leanne.” Counter was arrested on suspicion of assault causing actual bodily harm and answered “no comment” to all questions.

So far no criminal charges have arisen from the incident, the panel heard. PC Counter received a visit from her father, who angrily told her what she had done the day after the attack. She texted a police colleague to say: “I am not in the good books with my family,” blaming the Fireball drinks. She told her colleague she accepted what her father had told her, saying: “If he says I hit her then I must have done.”

While under investigation she was asked whether it was an isolated incident. PC Counter confessed that on a previous occasion she had put her father’s girlfriend in a headlock during “an altercation.” Mr Ley-Morgan said the attack breached the standards expected of police officers and was discreditable conduct which amounted to gross misconduct and should lead to the immediate dismissal of PC Counter. He added: “She had drunk to excess and there is evidence that this is not a one off. She has both verbally abused and then assaulted her mother in front of members of the public.

Mr Failes, his passenger and the taxi driver were all aware that she was a police officer. A reasonable member of the public would be concerned that an officer was unable to control their drinking and then resorts to violence when drunk.” Paul Crowley representing PC Counter, said: “She has been consistent in her account that she does not recall the incident. She was upset and unreservedly apologetic when she was spoken to by her father.

She is devastated and does not recognise the behaviours that have been alleged against her and has never shied away from the fact that the consumption of alcohol was a factor. It is completely out of character for her, she has an unblemished criminal conduct record.”

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