A Totton man who assaulted three Hampshire officers and was racially abusive to one has been sentenced to two months in prison, suspended for 18 months.

Malachi Bates, 18 and from Totton, appeared at Southampton Magistrates Court  on 14 December charged with assaulting three emergency workers and two public order offences.

The court heard how on Friday 19 November, officers were deployed to an address on Mansergh Walk in Totton just before midnight following reports of an altercation involving knifes.

Officers located Bates coming out of the estate, who fled after seeing them.

Officers threatened to use their taser - based on information that he might have an offensive weapon on him - at which point, Bates began to comply with their requests. However, he quickly became uncooperative and resisted arrest.

As officers began to explain the stop and search procedure to Malachi, he kicked out and assaulted two officers and spat at them. He was further restrained but then assaulted a further officer, before becoming verbally and racially aggressive towards another officer.

Bates pleaded guilty to three counts of assaulting an emergency worker. He also pleaded guilty to a racially aggravated public order offence and causing intentional harassment, alarm or distress.

The judge jailed Bates for 8 weeks, suspended for 18 months and ordered him to pay £205 for court costs and victim surcharge. He was also issued with a community order.

Garry Smith, Branch Secretary of the Hampshire Police Federation, told Police Oracle one of the solutions to reducing officer assaults was the criminal justice system sending out the right message that assaults will not be tolerated.

“This kinds of sentence sends the message it will be tolerated,” he said.

Mr Smith went on to say: “A public servant has been assaulted, doing their job to keep the community safe. And that's why people become paramedics, nurses, doctors, police officers, firefighters, because they want to serve the public, they want to do right, and stop the bad stuff.

“I’ve been spat at – it’s the worst thing ever. That’s aggravated with Covid-19 over the past nearly two years.

“It's just horrendous. It's the traumatic unknown - have they got anything? When they go home have they got something are they going to pass on?”

“Are the CPS too far detached from what happens operationally, in the back of an ambulance, in custody, on the frontline with any service?” he added.