Calls For Better Respect To North Yorkshire Police Officers

There are calls for better respect to North Yorkshire's police officers after a sharp rise in assaults during lockdown.

The county's police force says since late March, 87 incidents were reported against officers but during the same period in 2019 the number was 55.

Traffic Officer David Minto suffered with a broken ankle after he was attacked on duty.

He said:

"The realisation that it was a long term injury, I knew straight away there were some serious damage so I could have suffered further injury if he had the intent to do anything further.

Fortunately there was a colleague there and she managed to divert his attention and try and keep a lid on things.

Ultimately he made the decision that he wanted to throw me to the road surface, and as I understand from the body-worn video footage and also custody footage, he did admit that he wanted to 'trip' me in his words, and that was his decision and his decision alone."

David said his whole family was affected, particularly his three-year-old son:

"Playing football in the park with him, being able to do general daddy-son things, they were immediately removed and I wasn't able to do them for quite a while afterwards.

"I wasn't able to help around the house because I had a plastered cast on and I had to use crutches."