Crackdown on yobs who assault 999 workers

THIEVES and yobs who commit crimes against NHS workers can expect long jail sentences.

Forces say they are determined to stamp out thuggish behaviour following a spate of coughing and spitting attacks on 999 emergency staff.

Criminals who target front line emergency workers, especially hospital personnel, can expect long jail sentences. One police chief

News Reporter

warned: “You will be caught and dealt with robustly.”

Three girl yobs, one aged just 12, were warned after they repeatedly coughed in an NHS worker’s face at Warrington Bank Quay station on Friday evening.

And two men who stole bicycles from NHS staff were behind bars last night.

David Moran, 35, and Craig

Lancaster, 29, broke into a secure area at Queen’s Medical Centre, Nottingham, on March 26.

The pair, both of Bilborough, Nottingham, admitted burglary. They will be sentenced at Nottingham Crown Court on April 20.

A suspected burglar allegedly coughed in a police officer’s face and said: “Ha! I’ve got coronavirus. I hope you die,” a court heard.

Tommy Butler, 27, was arrested on Saturday on suspicion of a distraction burglary.

At Oxford Magistrates Court on Monday, Butler, of Mollington, Oxfordshire, denied theft and assaulting an emergency worker. He was remanded in custody and will appear again on Friday.

A shoplifter who threatened to cough in a security guard’s face and infect him with the virus has been jailed for 18 weeks in Suffolk.