Drunk man claiming to have COVID coughs in cop's face

A drunken man who said he had the coronavirus and then coughed in a police officer's face during an arrest in England on Tuesday is going to spend half a year behind bars.

Constables came upon a man being "verbally abusive" to a woman on a street in Newcastle and told him to calm down, Northumbria Police said. The man continued to be aggressive and then turned his abuse at the cops, police said.

Police released video footage from a constable's bodycam on which an officer is heard asking the man he has COVID-19. The man responds: "Yeah, I have," and coughs violently in the direction of the officer.

The cops then take him down and arrest him, at which point he claims he doesn't have the virus and was making it up.

In court, the man admitted to being drunk and disorderly and to assaulting an emergency worker. A magistrate sent him to jail for 26 weeks, police said.

"For him to then cough in the faces of one of our officers is despicable and completely unprovoked so I welcome the custodial sentence handed down by magistrates,"  Inspector, Karen Madge said in a statement. "I want to praise the professionalism of the two officers who responded to this incident who remained calm despite the barrage of abuse they faced."

The inspector said that similar assaults have happened to other officers in recent weeks.

“This is not the first time this has happened to our officers during their tour of duty and now a number of offenders are behind bars for committing similar offences," Madge said. "The courts are sending a strong message to offenders and we will continue to ensure any officers who are targeted receive the appropriate support."

————

Get breaking news alerts in the FOX5NY News app. It's FREE!

Download for iOS or Android

————