Coronavirus: 'Gobsmacked' senior police officer says COVID-19 spitters should be jailed
The director of public prosecutions has said using the virus to threaten emergency workers could lead to two years in prison.
Friday 24 April 2020 13:44, UK
A senior officer left "gobsmacked" by "lenient" sentences given to people who deliberately cough or spit at police has called for offenders to be jailed.
John Apter, chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales, said he was aware of dozens of recent attacks in which coronavirus had been "weaponised".
He welcomed prison terms for offenders, including the one given to 39-year-old Charlene Merrifield who was sentenced to 21 weeks after coughing at police as she was being arrested in Hebburn, near Newcastle.
However, he said officers were still seeing inconsistencies around the country.
"I scratch my head sometimes when I see some sentences being given out which are so lenient I'm gobsmacked by them.
"When they walk free from court, given the sort of people we are talking about, metaphorically they are sticking two fingers up at the wider judicial system and to society and they are walking away with a smile on their face and nothing more than a slap on the wrist."
His comments came after Trevor Dangerfield, 39, was spared jail for coughing in a police officer's face and saying he wanted to infect his family with COVID-19 in St Leonards, East Sussex, last Friday.
Dangerfield pleaded guilty to assaulting an emergency worker at Brighton Magistrates' Court and was sentenced to 18 weeks' imprisonment suspended for a year, ordered to pay £100 compensation and a victim surcharge of £156.
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Mr Apter, whose organisation represents 120,000 officers up to chief inspector rank, added: "In these extreme times when people are weaponising a deadly and destructive virus, then not to send people to prison who are found guilty of that should be the exception not the norm.
"These are violent offenders and, to do what they do, they are wicked, violent offenders, they should spend time in prison."
The director of public prosecutions Max Hill has warned that using COVID-19 as a threat against emergency workers would be treated as a crime that could lead to up to two years in prison.
New proposed sentencing guidelines also outline how spitting or coughing will be considered as aggravating factors when criminals are convicted of common assault offences.