King's Lynn man given suspended prison term for spitting on emergency workers as they tried to help him
A police officer and paramedic were spat upon by an injured man they were tending to in Bircham Newton.
Samuel Smythe, 27, was given a suspended sentence when he appeared before Lynn Magistrates’ Court on Thursday.
The court heard that the emergency workers had been called to the property and found Smythe bleeding from an egg-shaped wound on the back of his head.
“Unfortunately the officer had to hold him to stop him hitting his head against the kitchen cupboards and trying to smash his head against the wall,” said prosecutor Denise Holland.
Smythe was shouting abuse and swearing as the officer was trying to hold his head still while the wound was treated.
Then Smythe spat and a “significant” amount of saliva landed on the arms of the officer and the paramedic, who had to stop the treatment to wipe it off her.
A spit hood was applied to Smythe and he was taken to A&E at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital where he again needed to be restrained due to his “aggressive and volatile nature”.
Smythe, of North Everard Street, Lynn, pleaded guilty to two counts of assaulting an emergency worker.
The court was told he was sent to custody last year for matters including the same offence.
Hugh Cauthery, mitigating, said: “It’s regrettable to say the least that it’s the same form of offending that brought him before the court in June last year.”
He added that his client had drunk a bottle of amaretto and had realised too late that alcohol should not be mixed with his strong medication.
Mr Cauthery said Smythe had started drinking 18 months ago after being seriously assaulted for which the perpetrator received a nine-year sentence.
Smythe was given 24 weeks’ custody for each offence, to run concurrently and suspended for 18 months.
He also received a 12-month community order with 120 days’ alcohol abstinence monitoring requirement.
And he was also told to pay £100 compensation to each officer, £145 costs and a £128 victim surcharge.
