Spitter spared jail time

A MAN who spat in a police officer’s face on Flinders St in 2016 has been handed a suspended sentence in the Townsville District Court.

Rullington Benjamin Micheal Zaro, 20, was sentenced yesterday for two counts of serious assault of a police officer and obstructing a police officer in the performance of their duties.

The sentence was heard partly on Thursday and partly yesterday, with Zaro appearing distressed when in the dock on both days.

The court heard that about 1.30am on November 30, 2016, police arrested Destiny Monday following a fight on Flinders Street and Zaro followed officers, calling out that she was his sister.

Crown prosecutor Dane Marley said Zaro attempted to strike police officer Kelly Mor- ris and she sprayed him with capsicum spray.

“The OC spray ... hit the defendant in the eyes and he had quite an adverse reaction to that,” he said.

“What the police did is they started pouring water into the defendant’s face, they eventually sat him up on the back of a police van and they were pouring water in his eyes to try to alleviate the effects of the OC spray ... it’s while this was occurring the defendant spat the contents of his mouth at the police officer.

“It struck her in the face and also went into her mouth.”

Judge Paul Smith sentenced Zaro to nine months for one of the assaults, one month for the other and 14 days for obstructing a police officer, with all sentences fully suspended for 18 months.

Zaro was also ordered pay $ 1000 compensation. to