PEOPLE found guilty of assaulting emergency workers will now be open to longer sentences under the new guidelines which come into effect today, Thursday.

The new Sentencing Council guidelines have been introduced from July 1, and aim to help courts in England and Wales impose a proportionate sentence based on the seriousness of the offence.

As part of the guidance, the maximum sentence of an offender found guilty of common assault can be increased when the victim is an emergency worker.

It is the first time that judges and magistrates will have specific guidance for sentencing assault on emergency worker offences.

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More than 4,240 assaults were committed against emergency workers in Wales between April 2019 and November last year - rising from an average of 202 a month in 2019, to 222 in 2020.

In early June, a Newport woman was jailed after spitting at a custody detention officer following her arrest abusing and threatening to kill a couple in the city.

And that same week, a Blaenau Gwent teenager who assaulted an emergency worker on New Year's Eve has walked free from court - having only been fined for the offence.

The emergency services in Wales have welcomed the new guidelines.

Dylan Parry, the Welsh Ambulance Service’s violence and aggression project officer, said: “A split-second act of violence can have a devastating and long-term impact on our staff, so we need to ensure that when an emergency worker is assaulted, justice is delivered for them.

“These new guidelines are a welcome addition and bring clarity and consistency when sentencing such offences.”

Gwent Police’s Chief Constable Pam Kelly said: “Every assault on an emergency worker has a devastating impact on their friends, families and loved ones.

“This announcement is a step forward to ensuring that those individuals who commit a crime by assaulting an emergency worker are held to account.

“The guidance provided to judges and magistrates will ensure that sentences are proportionate but also reflect the hurt and pain inflicted by offenders.”

Tony Dicken, district crown prosecutor for CPS Cymru Wales, said: “These new guidelines formally require courts to apply an appropriate uplift to sentences for offences of assaulting an emergency worker.

“They also require sentencers to state in open court that the offence was aggravated by reason of the victim being an emergency worker and also to state what the sentence would have been without that element of aggravation.

“This means that it will be clear to defendants and the general public just how seriously the law views these offences.”

The Sentencing Council’s Her Honour Judge Rosa Dean said: “Assault is a traumatic offence and can cause great distress to the victim both physically and psychologically, and it is important that sentences reflect the harm and upset that can be caused to many people.

“The guidelines will ensure appropriate and proportionate sentences are imposed for these offences that fully recognise the level of harm caused to the victim.”