Fed calls for tougher sentences for assaults on officers

23 June 2023

West Mercia Police Federation chair Barry Horton has repeated his calls for the courts to use their sentencing powers to the full extent after a man received a conditional discharge after admitting assaulting an officer.

Barry said officers were being treated with contempt and that such offences should result in much tougher sentences.

He spoke out after the decision by Telford magistrates who were told how police were called out to reports of an incident at an address in Wellington last New Year’s Eve.

The court heard that when the officers arrived at the scene the offender, who had seven previous convictions and was out on licence from prison at the time, kicked his girlfriend in the head before pinning one of the officers against the wall as he tried to arrest him.

The man pleaded guilty to common assault on his former girlfriend and guilty to assaulting an emergency worker.

He was sentenced to a 24-month conditional discharge for the assault on his former girlfriend and a 24-month conditional discharge for the assault on the officer, which included a six-month “uplift”. The sentences were ordered to run concurrently.

Commenting on the case, Barry said: “On this occasion the offender was given a conditional discharge which is simply not enough for their actions. What sort of a message does that send out? 

“Officers are treated with contempt and assaulting a police officer for simply doing their job should have resulted in a far higher sentence.

Barry Horton has called for tougher sentences

“We would urge judges and magistrates to deliver the toughest possible sentences on those convicted of assaulting a police officer.

“Such attacks must never be dismissed as being ‘part of the job’ because no one should have to tolerate being exposed to violence of any kind when they go to work.”

Successive Home Secretaries have vowed to clamp down on individuals who carry out attacks on emergency service personnel.

The 2022 Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act saw the maximum sentence for assaults on blue light workers increase from 12 months to two years after intensive lobbying by the Police Federation with its Protect The Protectors campaign.

Home Office figures for assaults on police officers show that in 12 months up to March 2022,  a total of 671 West Mercia Police officers were assaulted with 207 suffering injuries as a result.

National data for the same period show there were 41,221 assaults on officers across England and Wales, up from 37,968 the previous year.