An MP’s daughter claimed in court yesterday that she was handcuffed and dragged along the floor to a police van after being “pepper sprayed” by officers on Front Street.

M’aeisha Weeks, daughter of Opposition politician Michael Weeks, told Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner that being sprayed was “one of the worst feelings I have ever encountered”.

“It felt like my body was on fire,” said the 21-year-old law student, as her father and other family members listened in the public gallery. “I was immediately blinded.”

Ms Weeks, of St John’s Road, Pembroke, is jointly charged with affray with her best friend Asha Joell, also 21, of Winton, North Carolina.

The pair are accused of taking part in a fight outside the Bistro at the Beach nightspot in Hamilton in the early hours of Saturday, August 9.

Ms Weeks is also charged with violently resisting police officer Donovan James while he was trying to arrest her.

Ms Joell, is charged with assaulting and violently resisting arrest by officer Terry Thompson. The pair deny the charges and are standing trial at Magistrates’ Court.

Ms Weeks took the stand first, telling the court she was studying for a law degree at Middlesex University in London and was interning this summer at Charter Chambers law firm.

Under examination-in-chief by defence lawyer Simone Smith-Bean, she said she and her friends were at a party at the Beach and went onto the patio outside at about 3am after the party ended.

“A gentleman within close proximity of us was approached by a female,” she said. “We continued with what we were doing. I’m unsure if the female thought we were laughing at her. She began directing her feelings towards my friends and I.”

The defendant said she didn’t remember exactly what she said to the woman but it was along the lines of “calm down and refrain from getting into our face”.

“She persisted with her rude and hostile behaviour and started to use her hands, placing them in my face,” added Ms Weeks. “She then went on to throw a punch that hit me in the face.” Ms Weeks described how the woman “went in for another hit and I defended myself, trying to stop the hits from coming. We became locked. She had my hair and we were rolling around the ground.”

She said she was picked up from the ground by someone she thought might be a Good Samaritan before “without warning, being pepper sprayed in the eyes, mouth, hair and on my back”.

“I wasn’t sure what to think because I had never been pepper sprayed before. I just knew that I was in a lot of pain.”

The defendant claimed she was unable to see and “felt everything that transpired next”, including being handcuffed and dragged to a van.

“I didn’t walk to the van,” she said, claiming her body was sore the next morning because “I was being dragged” and was “thrown to the ground on more than one occasion”.

Prosecutor Loxly Ricketts, cross-examining, suggested that Pc James said: “Stop! Police” at least three times and warned her before deploying Captor spray.

Ms Weeks said that wasn’t true and also denied “kicking and flailing” her arms at him as he arrested her. She said she had drunk two cups of rum swizzle during the evening.

The prosecution claims Ms Weeks kicked and pushed violently at the officer as he tried to arrest her, while Ms Joell allegedly punched and screamed at Pc Thompson, telling him: “You can’t take a hit from a girl. I’ll remember that, you p****.”

Ms Joell, a biology student at Winston-Salem State University, NC, took the stand next, insisting she was not intoxicated and describing how she was pepper sprayed after she tried to “grab” the other woman to get her off Ms Weeks.

Terrae Christopher, a friend of the defendants, was the third and final defence witness.

The Bermuda College education student, of Southside Road, St George’s, claimed police “manhandled” the accused pair and did not identify themselves at the scene.

She denied that Ms Weeks was the aggressor during the fight.

Mr Rickets, in his closing submissions, accused the defendants of giving inconsistent evidence and said Ms Christopher’s testimony was “at odds” with her friends.

Ms Smith-Bean claimed Ms Weeks was assaulted by the police officers and said neither policeman, giving evidence, could substantiate what the other experienced.

She said there was insufficient evidence to prove either of her clients resisted arrest or that Ms Joell assaulted Pc Thompson.

The trial continues today.