Londonderry: Man jailed for assaulting paramedics

A man has been jailed for five months for assaulting two paramedics.

Adam Toner, 35, of Great James Street, Londonderry, admitted the assault and a charge of causing criminal damage to a police vehicle on 2 August last year.

The city's Magistrates' Court heard Toner had threatened the ambulance staff with a Stanley knife.

District judge Barney McElholm said such attacks on emergency workers "will not be tolerated".

The court heard police were called to the flat at Great James Street after receiving report that paramedics had been threatened with a knife.

Toner had called the paramedics and they were in the process of treating him when he became aggressive and picked up the knife.

Following his arrest, Toner spat on the floor of a police vehicle. It later required a deep clean, the court was told.

'Something not right'

A defence solicitor said there was always "a degree of peril" when dealing with any assault on paramedics.

He said that the offences were "technical assaults" and there was no actual physical assault.

The solicitor said that during the incident a friend had realised that "there was something not right about Toner" and that the friend had positioned himself between him and the paramedics.

He said Toner had previously been the victim of a serous assault and has "not been right since".

Jailing Toner for five months, Judge McElholm said paramedics "are paid a fraction of what they should be paid and as well as this an increasing number of people are assaulting them".