Culcheth drunk who spat at paramedic and kicked police officer fined

Pawel Miszczak pleaded guilty to two counts of common assault of an emergency worker at Warrington Magistrates court and appeared for sentencing last Thursday.

The court heard how in his drunken state on the evening of January 24, the 42-year-old dad cocked his head back, gargling saliva, before lunging forward and instead assaulting a police officer who was attending to the incident at Warrington Hospital.

Prosecuting, Robert Earl said the defendant was assisting another man to Warrington Hospital in an ambulance from his home address in Culcheth on the night of the assaults.

The friend was later referred to by Miszczak’s defence barrister as a ‘stranger he met on the street and began consuming alcohol with’ in his home on Churchill Avenue.

During the ambulance ride it was heard the defendant became ‘irate’ and ‘aggressive’ towards the emergency worker inside the vehicle.

“He started to spit at the back of the ambulance at a paramedic,” Mr Earl said. “The emergency worker said there was aggression shown towards him and spoke of his disgust at being spat at by the defendant.”

When the defendant and the man he was accompanying arrived at Warrington Hospital, the situation escalated, and Miszczak had to be taken to the floor and arrested for the assault.

He had at some point within that time suffered an injury to his wrist and had to be taken to triage for medical treatment, the court heard.

The defendant, whilst on a ward, began shouting a barrage of profanities in front of at least 30 hospital workers, in one instance telling someone to ‘f*ck off’.

The hearing took place at Warrington Magistrates Court (Image: Newsquest)

“He had to be escorted off and whilst being triaged the defendant continued the aggressive behaviour,” Mr Earl explained.

“There were warning signs he was going to spit at the police officer stood with him but instead of spitting he kicked him.”

In a statement following the incident, the police officer in question stated that Miszczak had ‘copious amounts of saliva in his mouth’ and ‘tilted his head back’ as if gesturing a spitting motion.

However, he kicked the police officer in the leg instead and was arrested once again.

Defending, Mr Barnett told the court how his client is originally from Poland and has only spent the last seven years of his life in England, moving over to have a ‘fresh start’ after the break down of his marriage.

“12 months ago, he suffered an accident where he broke his back. He lost his job and unfortunately, he has turned to alcohol to ease the pain,” he said.

“He continued drinking alcohol regularly. He was drinking beer, vodka and cider."

Mr Barnett said his client was feeling ‘lonely’ at home on the day of the incident.

“He went outside the property and met a stranger on the street and began to consume alcohol with him.”

An incident involving self-harm that night led to the defendant calling an ambulance for the other man due to concerns of his health.

“He accompanied him in the ambulance. The rest is a complete blur to him. Clearly the alcohol on the night had a huge effect on him.”

The defence barrister added that his client has expressed ‘shame’ for the incident and has since stopped drinking vodka and cider and only drinks beer.

Sentencing the defendant, chair of the bench Iain Deas stated the offences did not pass the custody threshold and served him a 12-month community order.

The terms of the order being that he must complete 15 rehabilitation requirement days, attend an alcohol treatment programme for three months and he is to pay £490 of court fees.