A Brighton woman with the coronavirus has been jailed after she told a police officer that she was infected and then spat at her.
Christina Whelan hit another police officer in the face and punched paramedic Andrew Dyer in the stomach at the Royal Sussex County Hospital, in Brighton, on Tuesday (12 January).
Whelan, 34, of Bylands, Danehill Road, Whitehawk, also assaulted security guard Matthew Dewdney and swore repeatedly and shouted drunken abuse.
At Brighton Magistrates’ Court yesterday (Thursday 14 January), District Judge Tessa Szagun jailed Whelan for 36 weeks.
Whelan pleaded guilty to three counts of assaulting an emergency worker – Mr Dyer, PC Dave Rea and PC Lauren Reid – as well as to a charge of assaulting Mr Dewdney.
She admitted the tirade of abuse and a charge of resisting a police officer – PC Max Setra.
Sussex Police said that at about 8.30pm on Tuesday officers “heard a disturbance and found a woman behaving aggressively towards staff”.
The force said: “Officers intervened and one PC was struck and another PC spat at by the suspect who said she had covid-19.
“She continued to shout abusive language and also assaulted a member of security staff at the hospital.”
Chief Inspector Roy Hodder said: “Our officers and NHS colleagues work incredibly hard to protect and support members of the public and it is completely unacceptable that they should face this kind of appalling treatment while carrying out their duties.
“We are pleased the court has recognised the severity of these offences and served the defendant with a custodial sentence.
“Being assaulted should absolutely not be part of the job as a police officer or NHS staff and we are grateful to our colleagues for the challenging work they undertake every day.”
A well-deserved prison sentence. Such people should not presume that they are free to kill others.
Except 36 weeks is nowhere near long enough. She is a danger to everyone around her, and should be shut away for a very long time. Paramedics and hospitals have enogh to deal with without having creatures like that to be bothered with. She should have been dumped by medical staff and not helped. We need zero tolerance for such monstrous behaviour.
I am not justifying it is disgusting behaviour, but we should also recognise those with addictions and the need for are massively struggling right now, relapses and the other trauma coming back.
Lets hope she gets clean inside. She is from the area I grew up and know her, deffo out of character.