Covidiot jailed after causing chaos in Milton Keynes M&S store during lockdown

Jeremiah O'Sullivan shouted at staff who tried to block his path, then told the manager he hoped he and his family members would die from coronavirus.

The 55-year-old, who has 126 previous convictions, was arrested, but then launched a "dirty protest" on police.

Today he has been jailed for 75 weeks by an Aylesbury Crown Court judge.

Prosecuting, Alexandra Bull told the court that when a member of M&S staff tried to block the 55-year-old's path and told him to obey social distancing, O'Sullivan screamed: "Virus, virus! Two metres!"

She said: "The store manager asked him to leave the store, which he did. Once outside, he told the manager he hoped he caught coronavirus and he hoped his family members would die from it.

"Police arrested Mr O'Sullivan. He said he wanted to get revenge on society and considered himself a predator.

"He told police 'I hope he gets the virus, I hope you two get it too. You guys are at risk of getting it, I have got corona. I will piss on your graves'. He said he had previously spat while in a police car."

Ms Bull added: "Once at the police station Mr O'Sullivan continued to be agitated. He was further arrested. He began washing his hands and face in the toilet and started flicking the water from the pan at the officers and said 'do you know how long the virus lasts in water?'"

The court heard that one of the police officers, a PC Wilson, had been wearing PPE and so the water did not hit him in the face.

Shortly afterwards, O'Sullivan announced he was going to carry out a "dirty protest" and threatened to smear his excrement over the police officers before defecating in his cell and throwing the results against a wall, the prosecutor added.

Even the next morning O'Sullivan continued to be aggressive and spat at a female officer, the court heard.

Ms Bull said: "He defecated again upon a mattress and went on to describe how he was sexually aroused by s***ing in front of other men and that he enjoyed watching dogs clean up after bitches."

The mattress and other items had to be thrown away at a cost of £173 and the court heard how O'Sullivan had also been homophobic and anti-semitic in his abuse during the course of his dealings with the police.

PC Wilson, in a victim impact statement, said: "I have to go home to my family and explain to them what has happened. I understand as a police officer I have to take risks that other people do not, however that absolutely gives Mr O'Sullivan no right to treat me this way.

"He has placed me at huge risk. I have had to spend a number of hours in a Covid-19 centre."

The court heard how O'Sullivan had 126 previous convictions, many of which included public order offences, offences against the person and criminal damage.

In April last year O'Sullivan was jailed for 25 months for a hoax which saw him armed with an axe when police arrived after the defendant had called them and said there was bomb in his house.

Defending O'Sullivan, Paul White said the defendant had never been assessed by mental health services, so it was not known whether his behaviour was due to a condition.

The lawyer said: "The mitigation is in the mental health issues, without being able to identify them. Clearly there is something going on here. What that is, I cannot explore any further.

"Any sentence passed is one that at least gives an opportunity when released for his behaviour perhaps to be looked at by experts to see if there is any way of dealing with this type of behaviour, which all too frequently is being repeated at the moment."

Judge Thomas Rochford, sentencing at Aylesbury Crown Court by Skype for Business, told O'Sullivan that he had spent his life appearing in the magistrates courts and his transition to crown court was much more serious.

The judge said: "This incident occurred some three weeks after the country had gone into lockdown, a time of extreme fragility and nervousness.

"As members of the public, we all learned and learned quickly we needed to modify our behaviour and show particular respect to other people.

"You did not take that lesson on board and your offences at the shop involved shop workers. They are not in the strict meaning emergency workers, but the courts will always seek to protect shop workers and others with shop facing roles.

"The courts, in particular at the time of this public health emergency, recognise that people in shops have a vital role to perform and they place themselves at risk from constant contact with members of the public and the courts will seek to protect them from this sort of thing.

"You should and could have come to your senses once the police arrived but you did not and you certainly could and should have come to your senses having spent a night in the police cells but you did not."

The judge jailed O'Sullivan for 75 weeks for two counts of using threatening/abusive/insulting words/behaviour to cause harassment/alarm/distress, two counts of assault by beating of an emergency worker, two counts of criminal damage to property under £5,000, two counts of assault by beating and common assault of emergency worker.

O'Sullivan admitted all the offences.