A coughing crime wave has struck Britain as police Tasered a man when he allegedly began hacking over them, and a different man was arrested for assault today after coughing at supermarket shoppers.
Metropolitan Police firearms command said a man walked up to officers sitting in a car in Haringey, north London, and shouted that he was infected before deliberately coughing saliva all over them’.
He then began to physically attack the officers before he was Tasered and arrested, it was claimed yesterday. The suspect was later tested for coronavirus but came back negative.
In Suffolk, a man is due to appear in court on a harassment charge after allegedly coughing over people in a supermarket.
Police today Tasered a man who allegedly coughed over them after claiming to have coronavirus. File photo
Police said they received calls from several members of the public at 11.40am on Saturday claiming that someone in a mask was coughing over shoppers at the Co-op store in Eye, Suffolk.
A Suffolk Police statement said: “Officers on patrol in the area swiftly located a suspect and arrested him on suspicion of common assault. He was taken to Bury St Edmunds Police Investigation Centre for questioning.”
Jonathan Steele, 34, from Eye, has now been charged with causing harassment, alarm or distress by using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour or disorderly behaviour.
There have been numerous incidents of thugs targeting police and NHS workers with the sickening tactic. Paul Leivers (pictured), was recently jailed for a year for coughing on a paramedic
He has also been charged with resisting arrest by a police constable, and has been released on bail to appear at Ipswich Magistrates Court on 10 April.
Last week director of public prosecutions Max Hill warned the public that using Covid-19 as a threat against emergency workers would be treated as a crime that could lead to up to two years behind bars.
Deliberately coughing at other key workers such as supermarket staff could be prosecuted as a common assault, which could mean up to six months in prison.
The crackdown follows numerous incidents of thugs targeting police and NHS workers with the sickening tactic.
In another alleged incident, a 45-year-old man has been charged with assaulting an emergency worker after allegedly coughing on a PC and telling them he had coronavirus.
The incident happened after West Yorkshire Police attended a report of a disturbance in Sowerby Bridge near Halifax.
While officers were there it is alleged the man, Jason Roberts, coughed at a police officer, saying he had Covid-19.
Roberts, who is from Halifax is due to appear at Leeds Magistrates Court today.
Yesterday, a paramedic who was helping an unwell patient was coughed at by another man who was self-isolating inside a house in Stroud, Gloucestershire.
‘The man, a 43-year-old, was arrested, charged and remanded for assaulting an emergency worker by way of coughing and threatening GBH by infecting with Covid-19,’ an ambulance service spokesman said.
A stock image of officers who have been dealing with a spate of coughing incidents today
The arrest came after the jailing of Paul Leivers, 48, for spitting at officers while claiming to have coronavirus.
Leivers admitted two counts of assault on an emergency worker after being arrested in Mansfield on Thursday.
The court heard Leivers did not have coronavirus or any symptoms of the disease.
Sentencing the defendant, District Judge Pyle said: ‘It was in the public interest to deal with the matter sooner rather than later.
‘These are two distinct acts and it was appalling behaviour, these offences were deliberate and pre-mediated.
‘Emergency workers have a difficult job at the best of time, even more so at the minute and the court will not flinch to protect officers
Assistant Chief Constable Steve Cooper, of Nottinghamshire Police, said: ‘This sentence sends out a very powerful and clear message that this behaviour will not be tolerated in any shape or form and especially not now in the current climate.
How new crackdown sees jail time for thugs who cough at emergency workers
Anyone caught deliberately coughing at emergency workers while claiming to be infected with coronavirus could be charged with attacking an emergency worker.
David Mott, 40, from Blackburn, was sentenced to 26 weeks in prison after threatening to spit at officers when they asked him why he was outdoors with two others on Monday night.
The maximum sentence for this crime is two years in prison.
Deliberately coughing at anyone in an attempt to infect them could constitute common assault, for which the maximum sentence is six months.
Attacking a key worker, such as supermarket staff, would be counted as an aggravating factor.
‘In Brighton, police were called to a report of criminal damage at a block of flats at about 5.50pm on Saturday, where they arrested Peter Davy, 65, who allegedly spat at officers.
Davy is due to appear at Brighton Magistrates’ Court today accused of three counts of assaulting an emergency worker.
He is also charged with using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour with intent to cause fear of violence; and using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour with intent to cause harassment, alarm or distress.
In a separate incident in Salford, a hospital worker suffered a fractured cheekbone after he was punched in the face.
Greater Manchester Police said Daniel Shevlin, 27, had been charged with Section 20 assault and an offence under Section 4a of the Public Order Act after the alleged incident at Salford Royal Infirmary on Sunday.
Officers were called just before 1.50pm to reports a man had assaulted a member of NHS staff at the hospital.
The staff member – a man in his 50s – required treatment for a fractured cheekbone but has since been discharged, police said.
A force spokesman said Shevlin, of no fixed abode, had been remanded in custody and was due to appear at Manchester and Salford Magistrates’ Court today.
Yob spits in NHS worker’s face as she walks home after ten-hour shift
An NHS worker was spat at twice as she walked home from a 10-hour shift, as doctors and nurses are warned not to wear uniforms and to hide ID badges on their way to work.
Sama Shali, 33, fears she was targeted by the unidentified yob as she was still wearing her ID badge for the The Christie Hospital in Withington, south Manchester.
It comes as doctors and nurses around the country have been robbed of ID badges, cash and even a car in recent weeks, while Piers Morgan has vowed to name and shame thugs who target the NHS.
Sama stopped walking after she heard a man on a bicycle say something to her as she headed to a tram station in Didsbury.
She said: ‘He said something to me and I took my earphones out to hear what he said. I asked him if he could give me some space as he was quite close to me and then he spat in my face.’
Sama Shali, 33, was spat at twice as she walked home from a 10-hour shift at The Christie Hospital in Withington, in Manchester. Fortunately two women were on hand to picture the yob