Man who bit police officer at start of lockdown jailed for 10 months

Christopher Hill bit a police officer while she tried to explain to him that he shouldn’t be visiting people in lockdown at the height of the pandemic.

Hill has now been jailed for 10 months following the attack on Drake Street, Rochdale back in April. 

The 21-year-old police officer was attacked after she responded to reports of a street disturbance in Rochdale on April 9th with colleagues. 

Hill was trying to visit his partner at the time, breaching the coronavirus rules. 

The officer attended hospital after the attack but was luckily discharged with a negative test for Covid-19. 

Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police, Ian Hopkins, branded the attacker the ‘lowest of the low’.

He said at the time: “Words fail me when it comes to some people’s behaviour. This is shocking at the best of times, but during a Coronavirus pandemic this is just the lowest of the low. I trust the CPS & Court will now do what we all expect of them!”

Hill, who lives in Waterfoot, has been jailed for 10 months after admitting assault occasioning actual bodily harm, as well as assaulting two other police officers in a scuffle and criminal damage to a door.

Sentencing at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court, Judge John Edwards told him: “The public call on the police to help them when they are most in need. The police have a duty to protect the public but are too often prevented from doing so by individuals like you who choose to attack them.

“While they anticipate and expect confrontation they do not expect to be bitten to such an extent.

“This was at the very height of the pandemic and the impact on the officers cannot be underestimated, whether you were carrying the virus or not.”

He added that the offence was so serious it could only be met with immediate custody, as well as accepting Hill’s remorse and apologies.