Jail for man who bit and spat at police officers after semi-final

A man who bit a police officer and spat at another after England’s Euro 2020 semi final win has been jailed.

Officers were on patrol in Broadway throughout Wednesday evening (7 July) due to the football match when they spotted 28-yearold Kieran Graham walking in the road and causing disruption to traffic at about 11.40pm.

After trying to reason with him and move him out of the traffic, Graham was arrested after becoming both verbally and physically aggressive.

While Graham was being searched in the back of a police van, he spat in the face of PC Mike Price which made contact with one of his eyes, cheek and face mask.

Graham was further arrested for assaulting a police officer and transported to Thorpe Wood Police Station.

Upon arrival at the station and opening up the van, Graham attempted to spit at PC Chris Cawdery and bit him on his forearm, breaking the skin.

This resulted in PC Cawdery requiring medical treatment to prevent him contracting a bloodborne virus which has since had severe side-effects resulting in him having to be signed off work.

Graham, of Potters Way in Fengate, who has previously served time in prison for various assaults including causing grievous bodily harm (GBH), battery and assaulting emergency workers, was charged with two counts of assaulting an emergency worker by beating.

On Friday (9 July), he appeared at Peterborough Magistrates’ Court where he admitted the charges and was sentenced to six months in prison for each offence, as well as having a previous sixmonth suspended sentence activated, all to run consecutively.

Chief Constable Nick Dean said: “Graham had been out drinking and watching the football at a pub, as had many others across the nation, however his behaviour was completely unacceptable that night.

“My officers accept there is a level of risk each and every day they come into work, as is the nature of policing, however it is never acceptable and it is not ‘part of the job’ to experience assaults such as these.

“Not only do they often have a physical and mental affect on our officers, the aftermath of them has significant consequences as we have seen with PC Cawdery having to be signed off work.

“This impacts not only the assaulted officer, but their family and loved ones, their colleagues and ultimately the public we serve while we all deal with the aftermath of such incidents.”

Kieran Graham