Northern Ireland

Drink spike case doctor drops assault sentence appeal

Dr Eireann Kerr speaking to the BBC a day after her conviction for assaulting police officers
Dr Eireann Kerr speaking to the BBC a day after her conviction for assaulting police officers Dr Eireann Kerr speaking to the BBC a day after her conviction for assaulting police officers

A DOCTOR who attracted thousands of online supporters after she vowed to challenge her sentence for assaulting police while under the influence of a date rape drug has dropped her appeal.

Dr Eireann Kerr (32) had received widespread support after colleagues claimed her career could be jeopardised by her conviction.

The trial judge accepted that Dr Kerr's drink had been spiked with GHB but found her guilty of assault, resisting an officer and disorderly behaviour, and gave her a two-month conditional discharge.

Dr Kerr's barrister Eoghan Devlin told a Derry court: "The sentence will be affirmed."

Hospital anaesthetist Dr Kerr was recently convicted of a series of offences committed after she attended a Christmas party with work colleagues in Derry in December 2013. Her appeal was against her sentence for assaulting and resisting police and disorderly behaviour.

She insists she has no memory of the events.

A concerned Derry taxi driver had taken her to a police station, where she committed the offences.

Dr Kerr, of Marlborough Park South in Belfast, woke up in a police cell and upon release she went to hospital to get blood tests - an examination that found traces of date rape drug GHB.

The district judge who convicted her at Derry Magistrates Court said he had no doubt her drink had been spiked, but explained involuntary intoxication was not a defence in law.

She was given a two-month conditional discharge.

The doctor claims the convictions have put her medical career at risk.

A high-profile campaign to clear the medic's name attracted 8,974 signatures in an online petition.

Her colleagues at Altnagelvin Hospital in Derry, where she trained for a year before moving to Belfast, launched the Change.org petition urging the Public Prosecution Service to drop the case at appeal.