'Despicable' Hartlepool lockdown breacher who coughed in police officer's face loses appeal for shorter jail sentence

A judge said the prison term handed to 23-year-old Josh Robinson was ‘entirely justified’ in the circumstances of the pandemic and branded the act ‘despicable’.

Teesside Crown Court heard how Robinson was arrested following a drunken incident while breaking the lockdown rules on April 6.

Police took him to hospital due to his irrational behaviour where he was given a mask to wear because of symptoms he was showing.

When he was later being escorted back to the police vehicle, the mask slipped off as the officers had to restrain him.

He deliberately coughed in one officer’s face and tried to headbutt another.

Robinson was jailed for a total of 10 months by Teesside Magistrates Court on April 9, comprising six months for assault of an emergency worker and four months for common assault of another.

He appealed against the length of the sentence at the crown court on Tuesday, May 5.

While the six-month sentence for coughing at the police officer was upheld, the additional four months for the common assault was changed to be served at the same time, reducing the overall sentence to six months in total.

Robinson was threatening to the officers, saying ‘I hope you catch it’, a clear reference to Covid-19, said the judge, and ‘are you scared of the cough?’

Judge Paul Watson QC said: “We observe that the defendant’s behaviour on the 6th of April even in the best of times was bad enough, but against the setting of this grave national emergency it was despicable.

“That sentence of six months imprisonment was in our view entirely justified in the exceptional circumstances and times we are living in.”

Martin Scarborough representing Robinson, of Tommy McGuigan Grove, Hartlepool, said he had shown remorse and had limited previous convictions.

Judge Watson said it was an extremely serious offence and that emergency workers deserved the protection of the court.

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news on this free-to-read site, I am asking you to also please purchase a copy of our newspaper.

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the most rigorous standards in the world. But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. So we need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers - and consequently the advertising that we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news and information by buying a copy of our newspaper.

Thank you