8 March 2021

Dorset police officer who was spat at speaks about 'vile' assault

A Dorset police officer who was spat at has spoken out about the 'vile' assault

Dorset Police Federation Chair Anna Harvey said: “We must protect the protectors. We have endured yet another disgusting incident where a Custody Sergeant has been spat at and he has been exposed to the threat of Covid-19.

“It’s good to see that the individual concerned has pleaded guilty for this horrible act and we are now hoping this culprit will be given a custodial sentence to reflect the gravity of the offence.

“When we look back at some of the incidents we’ve had perpetrated against our members during the Covid-19 pandemic, there has been a marked increase of cases of biting, spitting and Covid being used as a threat.

“We need to see an appropriate deterrent, we need custodial sentences and we need judges sentencing guidelines to allow them to hand down the appropriate sentence because this is the only way we can deter people continuing to assault our police officers.

“The Crown Prosecution Service have said that these kind of Covid assaults on officers made up a quarter of Covid-19 related crimes prosecuted in the first 6 months of the pandemic, that's around 1,688 of such offenses between the 1st of April and the 30th.

“But speaking about what I have seen in Dorset, we’ve definitely seen an increase in assaults on our colleagues and we need to make sure we get the right sentencing when this happens.

“Just last week we saw an individual who was handed three fines for three individual assaults on police officers. That just doesn’t send out the right message criminals, to the public or to our colleagues who are trying to do their best policing the pandemic, which has been challenging to say the least.

“Any increase in sentencing for attacks on our brave police officers has to be a good thing – however it is also incredibly important that judges and magistrates impose those sentences on perpetrators”

https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/19137415.police-officer-spat-speaks-vile-assault/