Coronavirus: Hundreds of people charged after COVID-related attacks on emergency staff

Hundreds of people have been charged with coronavirus-related attacks in England and Wales, many of them on emergency workers, a senior prosecutor has said.

Some 442 suspects were charged with 660 offences flagged as being connected to COVID-19 last month, including assaults on 313 emergency staff.

Director of Public Prosecutions Max Hill QC said there had been some “appalling conduct” towards frontline workers.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said many of the offences followed the “typical pattern” of police officers and other emergency workers being coughed at and spat on by members of the public claiming to have coronavirus.

Mr Hill, who heads the CPS, told the Justice Affairs Select Committee there were also “142 offences of criminal damage, 99 public order offences, 63 common assaults (and) 44 cases of shop lifting”.

He added that there is a “very high conviction rate, hovering at around 97%”, because in the vast majority of cases people are pleading guilty.

Earlier this month, seven people were arrested after police were coughed at as they attempted to disperse a large group at a birthday party during strict lockdown measures. Around 40 people – including children – were at the gathering in Bolton.

In a separate briefing, the National Police Chiefs Council said there had been a 14% rise in assaults on emergency staff in the four weeks to 10 May, compared to the same period last year.

In general, crime is down by about 25% in England and Wales, with 999 calls falling 23%.

Speaking about the impact that lockdown is having on domestic abuse, Mr Hill said he was “as alarmed as anybody else” by the challenges facing victims at the moment.

He added that while the number of calls to domestic abuse helplines has risen by 49%, the number of cases “in the criminal justice pipeline” has gone up by a much smaller number.

The National Police Chiefs Council reported a 4% rise in domestic abuse incidents.

Cautioning the perpetrators of domestic abuse has become difficult without face-to-face contact, Mr Hill said.

“The offender needs to understand what he or she – it’s usually he but it can be a she – has done and there needs to be work with that individual to ensure that the conditional caution takes effect,” he told MPs.

Mr Hill added that “face-to-face intervention” had become “very difficult to impossible in the early stages of lockdown”.

That being the case, he said he did not think there had been “much in the way of out of court disposal on domestic abuse cases”.

He continued: “It’s rather the other way – more is coming to court.”

Mr Hill said that while modern technology had been very useful during lockdown, it will be important to reassess the justice system once restrictions are lifted.

“As always there is a balance [in using technology] when it comes to trial and the public declaration of guilt or innocence,” he said.

“We are going to have to look hard at the system and make sure we don’t lose any of the cornerstones of open justice and access to justice merely because we’ve gone through a period of crisis.”

(c) Sky News 2020: Coronavirus: Hundreds of people charged after COVID-related attacks on emergency staff