A Hamilton man has been jailed for two-and-a-half years after spitting at police officers who were trying to arrest him.
One of the officers cut his finger on a syringe as he searched Scott McCallum and faces an anxious wait over possible infection.
McCallum, 41, of Dunkeld Place, was sentenced at Hamilton Sheriff Court on Friday after he admitted assaulting the officers in Udston Road, Hamilton, and at Motherwell police station on June 5.
McCallum also admitted culpable and reckless conduct that caused an officer to be injured by denying that he had any sharp objects on him when he was being searched.
The court heard that he had been drinking all day and passers-by alerted the police when they saw him staggering along the road shortly before 8pm.
Mairi-Clare McMillan, prosecuting, said officers decided to search him.
She told the court: “He was asked if he had anything sharp and replied ‘No’.
“But there was an uncapped hypodermic syringe needle in his pocket.”
That punctured a PC’s thumb.
McCallum was arrested and began to struggle with one officer, spitting towards him.
The accused was placed in the police van and spat towards an officer, narrowly missing his face.
At the police station he tried to spit at a third officer.
Ms McMillan said that the officer whose thumb was punctured was taken to Hairmyres Hospital for examination. He was given anti-HIV medication and will require follow-up appointments to review the situation.
McCallum’s solicitor said he had been so drunk he had little recollection of the incidents and that he wished to apologise to the officers.
The solicitor added: “He has a lengthy criminal record, but not for this type of behaviour.
“Fortunately, no spittle landed on the officers.”
Sheriff Alasdair MacFadyen told McCallum: “You have a bad record and your behaviour on this occasion was completely unacceptable.”
Putting an officer at risk by denying he had anything sharp in his pocket was serious, the court heard, and “spitting towards officers during a pandemic is just as bad”.
The sheriff said he had reduced the sentence from 42 months to 30 months because of McCallum’s early guilty pleas.
It was backdated to June 8 as he has been in custody since his arrest.
