MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 21st May, 2020) More than 400 people in England and Wales were charged in April with assaulting emergency workers and other coronavirus-aggravated crimes, the UK director of public prosecutions said Thursday.
Max Hill told the House of Commons' Judiciary Committee during a teleconference that there were "424 individuals who between them face 660 charged offenses."
These include 313 emergency worker assaults, many of them spitting or coughing, along with 142 offenses of criminal damage, 99 public order offenses, 62 common assault cases and 44 shoplifting cases. All cases flagged as "COVID-related" are considered a priority.
The Crown Prosecution Service also saw a 3 percent increase in domestic abuse cases since the lockdown was announced in March, Hill added. Victims' Commissioner Vera Baird said in April that 16 women and children were killed in the UK in the first three weeks of the lockdown.
