PROSECUTORS have offered no evidence against a man accused of

deliberately breathing into the faces of police, after claiming to have

Covid-19.

Jason Baker had been accused of two common assaults in a custody suite against West Mercia Police constables while under arrest for a separate assault. However, prosecutors told a judge at Worcester Crown Court today that after a "further review" of audio and video footage of the alleged assaults there was "no realistic prospect of conviction".

With formal verdicts of not guilty to both counts, Judge James Burbidge QC told Baker, who appeared over prison video-link having since been jailed for other offences, that he was "released from these charges".

The judge then told the 48-year-old of Lion Street, Kidderminster: "Let me just say this - I'm not suggesting for one moment, in the light of that which the prosecution have said, that you did anything of this nature. But this court will regard spitting, coughing or spreading breath whether actual or imitation - pretending to in other words - as outrageous behaviour, in this time. The courts will deal with it sternly and robustly.

"I suspect the magistrates will always commit such offences to the crown court. I am not suggesting that you did that.

"But those that are arrested in strained circumstances sometimes make that action and we will deal with it stiffly."

Alex Warren, prosecuting, said the Crown Prosecution Service was

offering no evidence after viewing audio and video recordings from the

custody suite where the incident is said to have happened, on April 19.

He said: "The footage shows the officers having a difficult situation to deal with but it doesn't support the allegation the defendant

deliberately breathed into their faces."

Jason Aris, Baker's barrister, said his client was currently a serving

prisoner at HMP Hewell after being convicted in the magistrates court on May 22 for offences "in relation to matters arising out of his domestic circumstances".

It was while Baker, of Lion Street, Kidderminster was in police custody in connection with that investigation that the alleged assaults on the police were said to have happened.