NEARLY 30 Cumbrian police officers have been deliberately spat at or coughed on in the weeks since coronavirus arrived in the county.

Some of the police officers who were targeted have been spat on by suspects or offenders who have claimed that they were infected with Covid-19, effectively using the virus as a weapon.

Some cases have already been dealt with by the courts, with one offender – a woman from Carlisle – being jailed.

The disturbing facts about how some of the county’s criminals are trying to turn the Covid-19 health crisis to their advantage was revealed after The Mail submitted a Freedom of Information request to Cumbria Constabulary.

This confirmed how, since March 3, the county has seen:

  • 27 occasions when police officers were deliberately spat at or coughed on;
  • 23 assaults on police officers during ‘lockdown related’ incidents;
  • And 73 instances of people flouting the UK’s lockdown movement rules.

Among the recent cases was that of 27-year-old Kathleen Knaggs, from Botcherby, Carlisle, who was drunk and turned violent when police officers were called out to deal with a road accident which they suspected she was involved in.

When the officers tried to breathalyse her, she became abusive, yelling that she had Covid-19, and HIV, before spitting at the two constables. She was jailed for 14 months.

The Constabulary’s figures show that Carlisle was the area in Cumbria with the most breaches of the government’s lockdown restrictions, imposed in a bid to curb the spread of the virus, which by yesterday had killed nearly 40,000 people across the UK.

Chief Superintendent Rob O’Connor said it was never acceptable for emergency workers - whether police officers, paramedics or nurses - to be assaulted or targeted in this way while they were at work, serving their community.

He said: “That should never ever be acceptable, and in recent times legislation has seen the courts take a strong stance on persons involved in assaulting emergency service workers.