Man ‘hurled homophobic abuse’ at police while trying to stop an ambulance answering an emergency call
Ambulances on call outside a UK hospital (Dan Kitwood/Getty)
A man is facing criminal charges after he allegedly hurled homophobic abuse at police while attempting to stop an ambulance on a 999 call.
Police on patrol in Helensburgh, Scotland, spotted the lone 24-year-old man walking erratically down the middle of the road shortly after midnight on March 23.
According to local news, the man is alleged to have tried to block an ambulance from making its way to an emergency call near Victoria Halls in Sinclair Street.
When officers stopped him and tried to speak to him he was said to have become verbally aggressive towards police and to have “directed homophobic abuse” at both officers.
He was then arrested and allegedly tried to headbutt one officer as he was being physically controlled.
The man, who comes from Alexandria in West Dunbartonshire, was later taken to the nearby Clydebank police station. He was charged with disorderly conduct with a homophobic aggravation and resisting arrest.
An ambulance outside St Thomas’ Hospital in central London (Isabel INFANTES/AFP/Getty)
Elsewhere in the UK, a man was convicted last month after he viciously attacked a paramedic in an ambulance, kicking her in the neck and calling her a “c*nt” and a “dirty dyke”.
Dean Stevens, 28, had been drinking heavily when he collapsed in Shoreham, West Sussex. An ambulance was called for him and he was taken to A&E at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton.
When paramedic Rose Waller attempted to treat him in the back of the ambulance he told her: “I’m going to kill you.”
Stevens was then taken into police custody, where he was found in possession of cocaine.
He attacked a police officer and hurled more homophobic abuse, which was so bad that the officer said it made him consider his future in the police.
As the judge handed him a 20-week suspended sentence she highlighted the homophobic nature of the attack, which he had directed at “members of the emergency services doing a difficult job to keep you and the public safe.”
