Virus threat cough attackers are jailed

A WOMAN who coughed over six police officers, telling them ‘I’ll give you all coronavirus’ is among offenders jailed for attacks on front-line workers.

Victoria Geldard, 22, was sentenced to a year for the ‘despicable’ act after being picked up by officers called to a disturbance on Teesside last month.

Fare dodger Oreighn Quintyne, 21, was handed a 32-week prison term for attacking officers who had stopped him from boarding a train at Manchester Victoria on May 9.

And suspected Covid-19 sufferer Nicola Tilstone, 37, was sent down for 27 weeks for coughing at a paramedic and three police officers in a hospital virus ‘red zone’ on April 9.

The officers coughed at by Geldard were left worrying for weeks that they might be infected, Teesside crown court heard.

When she was picked up by police in Stockton-on-Tees early on April 13, she claimed she had been assaulted.

But when officers gave her a lift to help her get home to Leeds, she lashed out, biting one and kicking another.

After being arrested, she hawked up phlegm, saying: ‘I’ll f***ing cough all over you, I’ll give you all coronavirus.’

Geldard admitted nine counts of assaulting an emergency worker.

Quintyne, who smeared faeces around a cell after his arrest, admitted assault and criminal damage before Manchester and Salford magistrates.

Tilstone was taken to hospital after officers were called to deal with her ‘erratic behaviour’ and she was found to have a high temperature. At Stoke crown court she admitted assaulting emergency workers.