Woman in burka shut road
Gun gestures at motorists
A woman wearing a burka forced the closure of a busy motorway by strolling down the hard shoulder making “gun” gestures at police and passing cars.
Nadia Anwar, 26, was spotted on the motorway near Plean, Stirlingshire, in March (2018) at 6.45 am.
Worried drivers rang 999, and a police patrol was sent to the scene and initially followed the figure reported “at a distance”.
She made “firearms” gestures with her hands at traffic cops Mark Ormesher and Jill Kirkpatrick, before the officers moved in to detain her and the road was re-opened.
They found no she had no guns — but was carrying two knives, a pair of scissors, and a pizza cutter.
When questioned, she refused to give her nationality, or even her name and date of birth.
At Stirling Sheriff Court on Friday, Anwar, of Myreton Drive, Bannockburn, pleaded insanity to charges of breach of the peace by making threatening gestures to police and passing vehicles; having knives and other bladed articles in a public place; and failing to comply with a police requirement to identify herself.
Refusing a solicitor and representing herself, Anwar told Sheriff Derek Reekie that she “accepted” she had behaved in the manner set out in the charges, and would accept an order to be compulsorily detained under the Mental Health (Scotland) Act.
Prosecutor Craig Wainwright said: “A bed has been identified for her at the Forth Valley Royal Hospital.”
Anwar refused an offer to hear the facts narrated, saying: “I’d rather go straight to the final conclusion.”
She appeared in court in western clothing — having appeared in a burka at an earlier procedural hearing at which she was detained temporarily in hospital for reports.
Sheriff Reekie said two doctors had certified the need for a compulsion order, but described the latest medical report on her as “very encouraging”.
He ordered her to be compulsorily detained for six months.
In 2016, Anwar pleaded guilty to careless driving, as a result of an incident that caused nearly £12,500 worth of damage when she lost control of her Vauxhall Corsa in Deanston on a trip to see her boyfriend, and crashed into a garage forecourt, damaging three cars which were on sale.
One of the vehicles was written off.
A bed has been identified at Forth Valley