A woman has been jailed after she coughed at a police officer while being arrested. Bodycam footage shows Charlene Merrifield leaning forward and coughing in the face of an officer as she is loaded into a police van in South Tyneside.
The 39-year-old, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to assaulting an emergency worker, criminal damage, a public order offence, and breaching a suspended sentence and has been ordered to spend 21 weeks in jail.
Officers from Northumbria Police were called to Lyon Street in Hebburn on April 8 following a report that a woman had been threatening to stab a man and had caused damage to vehicles.