Man held for coughing on police officers in N.ireland

DUBLIN: A Northern Ireland man has been charged with attempting to commit grievous bodily harm after claiming to have coronavirus and deliberately coughing on police officers, the police service said on Thursday.

The man was held for common assault following a domestic incident in north Belfast on Wednesday, according to the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).

It is alleged he then told two arresting officers he had coronavirus before intentionally coughing over them.

“A 39 year-old man has been charged with common assault and two counts of attempting to commit grievous bodily harm,” a PSNI spokesman said in a statement.

The man was due to appear at Belfast Magistrate’s Court on the charges.

On Wednesday, Ireland’s health minister Simon Harris said he had been the victim of an apparent prank in Dublin where “a man and woman on the street” coughed at him and then “ran off laughing.”

“There’s absolutely nothing amusing about it — it’s quite pathetic,” he remarked of the incident said to have happened on Tuesday.

Harris said there seemed to be a “social media game” entailing videoing such acts.

He added that it would be dealt with using “the full vigours of all of the powers that the state has.”

Meanwhile, Britain’s Director of Public Prosecutions said that anyone claiming to have coronavirus who deliberately coughs at emergency workers faces being jailed for two years.

Max Hill said there had been reports in recent days of people coughing in the faces of police, other emergency workers and shop staff. Those responsible could face charges of common assault, he said.

“Emergency workers are more essential than ever as society comes together to tackle the coronavirus pandemic,” Hill said in a statement.

“I am therefore appalled by reports of police officers and other frontline workers being deliberately coughed at by people claiming to have COVID-19. Let me be very clear: this is a crime and needs to stop.”