Sarah Reeves, 25, had been arrested on August 14, while intoxicated, after arguing with bar staff at The New Albury Hotel.

The subsequent discovery of drugs at the station prompted three policemen and one woman officer to hold Reeves down and forcibly remove her clothes.

As a defended hearing into Reeves’s alleged behaviour on the day resumed at Albury Local Court, Reeves tearfully described the strip search.

“All of a sudden, the three males came in and I was grabbed and put over the bed in the doggy position,” she told the court yesterday.

“I just went into panic mode; I thought I was going to be raped.”

Reeves and a woman friend had stopped in Albury on August 13 on the way to Melbourne.

Reeves had consumed cannabis and cocaine at the hotel and drank wine, tequila and other alcohol in the hours before her arrest.

The full-time carer told magistrate Geoff Hiatt the night had run smoothly until she had confronted a hotel manager after a bar worker made an unsuccessful pass at her.

As the argument progressed, Reeves said the manager had advised her she would have to leave or he would call the police — a threat on which Reeves said she had encouraged him to act.

“I wanted to get out of there; I just wanted our money back and I wanted to know that we had somewhere safe to go,” she said.

After police arrived, Reeves said she collected her bags voluntarily once officers assured her they would find alternative accommodation.

But as she left the venue, Reeves said goading from the bar staff had infuriated her and she pushed back towards the door.

Albury Senior-Constable Ben Warchow was standing between Reeves and the door and “check drilled” her twice, pushing her in the chest.

Reeves said the policeman pinned her arm and pushed her face into the hotel’s brick wall.

“One minute I was being told I was being taken to safe accommodation and the next minute I’ve got my face up in a wall,” she said.

“I’m not a violent person. I’m not about to hit a police officer.”

Reeves claimed that later at the police station, another male officer called her a hooker, prompting her to remove her shirt and sit in her bra and jeans.

Reeves said she had asked to speak to a lawyer “at least 12 times” during her first hour at the station.

Constable Kylie Pellizzaro later found a sachet containing cocaine, which security footage showed had fallen out of Reeves’s boot.

Reeves, who denied any knowledge of the cocaine, said the officers had then stripped her after Constable Pellizzaro accused her of having something in the pockets of her tight-fitting jeans.

Reeves said she had told police the item was her driver’s licence but she refused to hand it over until she was allowed to call a lawyer.

Reeves was strip-searched at 3.20am and at 4.18am was seen damaging a mattress in her cell while naked. She said she had acted out because she was scared.

Mr Hiatt adjourned his decision on Reeves’s charges of assaulting police, resisting arrest, failing to leave licensed premises, possessing a prohibited drug and malicious damage until June 25 at Wagga Local Court.