Teenager charged over Covid-cough assault

A 14- YEAR- OLD boy has been charged with assault after allegedly coughing on a 66- year- old woman and shouting ‘coronavirus’.

The teenager, who will appear in youth court next month charged with common assault, was arrested when police were called after reports that a woman had been accosted in Ashton- under- Lyne, Greater Manchester, on March 17.

Separately, Mateusz Rejewski, 33, of no fixed abode, has been charged with common assault for allegedly coughing on a police officer and breaching a dispersal notice in Manchester last Thursday.

In another incident last Friday, police in Warrington, Cheshire, were called to attend when youngsters allegedly coughed at NHS staff while claiming to have coronavirus.

A spokesman said: ‘ At around 9pm, police received a report of a small group of young people verbally abusing and coughing on an NHS worker at Warrington Bank Quay railway station. Officers detained three young people at the scene, two 18-year-old women from Warrington and a 12-year-old girl from Widnes. An investigation into the incident is ongoing.’

The Crown Prosecution Service last week said coughing on people while claiming to have Covid-19 would be t r eat ed as assault , with attacks against emergency workers punishable by up to two years in prison.