Sophie is a lawyer… but a wild act meant she was the one put on trial as footage emerged of her embarrassing behaviour
A lawyer was given a bruising blow by a judge after he was found guilty of kneeing a police officer “in the balls” at Sydney’s Vivid Festival last year.
Sophie Holt denied being drunk during the brawl at The Rocks in court yesterday.
But footage from a police officer’s bodycam showed the 38-year-old woman’s speech was slurred and she appeared to stumble as police tried to get her a ride home.
“I want to remind you that I am a prosecutor,” she told one of the officers in the May 26, 2023, video.
After the officer denied she was drunk, he told her she “couldn’t even stand up straight.”
“You ran into three walls and hit three people,” he said.
Security footage then showed Holt getting into a taxi and then hanging out the back window.
Police arrested her again, after which she punched the officer in the face as she was being removed from the taxi.
“Don’t kick him, don’t kick him, you don’t have to,” one of the officers was heard telling Holt.
Sydney lawyer Sophie Holt during the incident with police at The Rocks last year
The moment Sophie Holt is pulled out of a taxi and a cop knees her in the groin
The other said, ‘Knee me in the balls again and you’ll be sued.’
Within moments she is arrested and forced to put her hands behind her back.
The law in NSW allows police to arrest someone in a public place if they have been drinking too much, especially if it could cause injury to them or another person.
Holt claimed in court that she accidentally kicked the officers, 7News reported.
However, Magistrate Kasey Pearce disagreed.
“It was deliberate,” she told the court.
‘She is significantly smaller than the officer and had to lift her knee to reach his groin.
“This is an attack.”
Holt was convicted and given a 12-month suspended sentence for good behavior.
Outside court, her lawyer, Paul McGirr, said he was “quite shocked by the decision”.
“We have already filed an appeal.”