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A man has been jailed for 52 weeks after he pleaded guilty to deliberately coughing over three officers while he was being arrested - and then telling them he was "not well".

Ritchie Buckthorpe, aged 31, of no fixed abode, appeared at Exeter Magistrates' Court on April 4 following an incident the previous day at a property in Morice Town, Plymouth.

Officers were called to the address a few minutes after midnight on April 3 where they encountered Buckthorpe who turned violent and aggressive.

Police say he was taken to the floor as he continued to be violent with the officers. At one stage he coughed directly into the face of one officer when they were just six inches apart. He then coughed over the other two officers twice each as they struggled.

He then shouted at the officers "oh yea, I'm definitely not well either".

The evidence was handed to the Crown Prosecution Service who deemed the matter to be a coronavirus-related assault on an emergency worker.

He received a 26 week sentence for the assault on one officer and 26 weeks for the assault on another officer, with the sentences to run concurrently. However, he was then handed a 26 week sentence for the assault on the first officer, with the sentence to run consecutively, bringing the total sentence to 52 weeks.