We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. More info

A thug threatened to cut off an ambulance worker’s ear with a meat cleaver.

Paul Searle, 59, now has been jailed for seven years for the “extremely frightening attack” on an emergency worker who was trying to help him.

A court heard two ambulance workers were called to an address in Fareham, Hampshire, where Searle had experiencing difficulty breathing.

But the the yob became aggressive and verbally abusive to both ambulance workers to the point they left his home and returned to their vehicle, Hampshire Live reports.

Searle approached the ambulance armed with a meat cleaver and pulled the driver – Scott Bruce – out of the vehicle whilst threatening to cut his ear off. The ambulance was reversing at this time and ended up colliding with a parked car.

The paramedic in the passenger seat – Emma Cooper – radioed for assistance and got out of the ambulance to find her colleague grappling on the pavement with Searle, before she helped to restrain him.

As a result of this incident, Mr Bruce suffered a cut to his hand from the meat cleaver which required stitches and physiotherapy, while Ms Cooper sustained a lump to her head. Searle was subsequently arrested and charged with causing grievous bodily harm with intent and assault on an emergency worker.

But he denied causing grievous bodily harm with intent and was found guilty on Wednesday, November 23, 2022, after a three-day trial.

Searle had previously pleaded guilty to assaulting an emergency worker and threatening a person with a bladed article in a public place at an earlier hearing.

And he was locked up at Swindon Crown Court on Friday.

His Honour Judge Cutler said: “This country values its paramedics, we need them to do their jobs. The public supports them and the law will do what it can to protect them.”

Ms Cooper released the following statement after the sentencing: “It’s come as a great relief to finally have some closure. I am proud of the actions that I took that night to prevent it from becoming a different outcome. No one in our line of work should have to face the possibility of not returning home to our families.

“Paul Searle decided he was going to subject us to that ordeal, and even though it all happened in a short space of time, the lasting impact has been profound.

“There are already too many reports of both physical and verbal abuse towards my fellow NHS colleagues, I really hope this case demonstrates that such behaviour will not be accepted nor tolerated.”

Source: Read Full Article