A SKIPTON man has been jailed for 18 weeks after spitting at and threatening to injure two paramedics who were trying to help him.

Steven Roberts, 19, of Aireview House, admitted two charges of common assault of an emergency worker on April 12 this year.

Skipton magistrates were told paramedics had attended Roberts’ address who had reported he had two seizures and had taken cocaine, two ecstasy tablets and had been drinking heavily. One paramedic said Roberts went rigid as if having a seizure but was not convulsive. After a matter of seconds he appeared normal. It was decided to take him to hospital but he vomited over the chair and in the ambulance.

As paramedics were cleaning up the vomit he spat towards one of them; some spital landing near her feet. She said Roberts then said: “I will cough in your face. Do you know what that means?”

Roberts also threatened to head butt a paramedic. The police were called and Roberts was arrested.

Defending, Caroline Aaron said her client had had a troubled background. He suffered from a lack of nurturing and suffered abuse as a child.

She said he wanted to apologise to the paramedics for his behaviour. She said no contact had been made with the emergency workers and the spitting was reckless, rather than intentional.

Magistrates told Roberts what he had done was extremely serious, particularly against emergency workers who were working through difficult times.

Roberts was sentenced to 18 weeks for both offences to run concurrently. Two current community orders for previous convictions were revoked and he was sentenced to 10 weeks and six weeks respectively for these, also to run concurrently. He was ordered to pay £100 compensation to each paramedic.