A drunken dad has been jailed after coughing at police officers and telling them he was infected with coronavirus.
Edward Shannon, 33, appeared from custody via videolink at Hamilton Sheriff Court on Friday.
He admitted assaulting PCs Aidan Hughes and Emma Smith en route to Motherwell Police Station on March 10.
He was on bail for another matter at the time.
The court heard Shannon became aggressive after he was arrested at his home.
Jennifer McCabe, prosecuting, said: “He mentioned he had COVID-19 and made reference to officers dying from it.
“He made numerous attempts to cough towards them while being verbally abusive in respect of COVID.
“This behaviour continued when he was removed from the cell van and taken into the police station.
“He was treated as someone suspected of being COVID-19 positive and the police officers interviewed him while in full PPE.”
Shannon’s lawyer said he was “profusely sorry” for his behaviour and stressed he did not have COVID-19 at that time.
The solicitor added: “This was more of a drunken threat than some form of particularly evil intent.
“He’s a married man with children.
“When sober, he is an excellent father and a very good husband, but his demon is drink and that has been a longstanding problem.”
Sheriff Linda Nicolson jailed Shannon for eight months, but backdated the sentence to March as he had been in custody since then.
It was expected he would be freed immediately due to early release rules.
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