Woman jailed for saying she had coronavirus and spitting at police officer

The force said the sentence sent ‘a strong message’ during the pandemic.

A 22-year-old woman has been jailed for eight weeks and fined £200 for spitting at a police officer after racially abusing a call handler.

Emily Whittall, of Sinatra Drive, Milton Keynes, pleaded guilty to assaulting an emergency worker and one count of racially-aggravated public order at Oxford Magistrates' Court.

Whittall claimed she had coronavirus. Picture: by HANDOUT/National Institutes of Health/AFP via Getty Images)

A Thames Valley Police spokesman said: "This follows an incident on Friday in which Whittall made racist remarks to a call handler after calling 999.

"Then, as she was being arrested, Whittall claimed to have coronavirus and spat at an officer."

PC Antony Hurd said: "This sentence is a strong message that assaults against emergency workers are not tolerated by Thames Valley Police or the courts.

"These are unprecedented times during a global health pandemic, and Whittall showed nothing but disregard for this or the officer's personal safety."

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

Frank O'Donnell

Editorial Director