Man who threatened to give policewoman hepatitis by spitting on her jailed for six months

Daryl Gracey, 30, targeted the officer just days after he received a suspended sentence for a previous assault on police.

Belfast Magistrates’ Court heard he was brought to the Mater Hospital following an overdose in the early hours of Sunday morning.

At one point he gathered spittle in his mouth and showed it to a PSNI constable standing less than two metres from him.

“He stated that he had Hepatitis B and C and would give it to her,” a prosecution lawyer said. “She felt in immediate fear of being spat on by the defendant.”

Due to the level of threat posed by the defendant other officers restrained him and applied a spit hood.

Gracey, previously with an address in Ballynahinch but currently of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to assault on police.

Defence counsel Michael Boyd acknowledged: “Thankfully he didn’t actually spit, but it’s very unpleasant to say the least.

“There is simply no excuse for his behaviour and, in sobriety, he's ashamed of it.”

The barrister described his client as being on a “never-ending carousel” of drug addiction and criminal convictions.

“He had taken an overdose that night of 100 paracetamol, that’s why he was at the hospital,” Mr Boyd added.

It also emerged that Gracey received a four-month suspended sentence at Downpatrick Court last week for a separate assault on police and possessing an offensive weapon.

Activating that term, District Judge Steven Keown ordered him to serve a further two months for the new offence.

Mr Keown added: “If he had spat on the officer it would have been… a nine-month sentence.”