Shropshire Star

"I hope you get cancer" – Police officer verbally abused after stopping car in Wellington

It was the worst case of verbal abuse Constable Rob Hughes had ever seen, and it was all because of an illegal licence plate in Telford.

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Rob, a serving police officer for 10 years, pulled over a motorist for having an altered licence plate, and the man's aggressive response shocked him.

"He told me he wished my family and I got cancer," Rob said. "He called someone and asked them to find out where I live.

"The incident was very upsetting and although the majority of people I have to stop are nice, some are not and this was the worst case I'd seen.

"I'm just doing my job – that's all I'm doing."

Rob Hughes – picture: West Mercia Police

The motorist was stopped in Wellington on Thursday afternoon by Rob due to having an illegal number plate that spelled his name.

Despite being pulled over two times previously for the same issue, the man was instantly aggressive.

The driver, who is described to be middle aged and British, was issued with a £100 fine after the ordeal.

Superintendent Paul Moxley, Telford local policing commander, said: “Police officers deal with challenging and often difficult individuals on a daily basis. They recognise this is part of the job. They shouldn’t have to put up with threats aimed at them and certainly not their families.

"I would hope the majority of people recognise my staff are simply doing their job and working hard to keep our communities and roads safe.

"Perhaps if the individual complied with the law like everyone else does and got himself a legal number plate, my officers wouldn’t have had to stop him in the first place”

The situation was initially reported by the Donnington SNT's Twitter account, where users commented on the "disgusting" behaviour witnessed.

This comes just days after it was revealed that body cameras are being rolled out to all front-line ambulance workers in the Midlands next year in a bid to secure more convictions and protect staff.

Anthony Marsh, the service's chief executive, has vowed that attackers would be sent to prison and expressed his frustrations about hearing of the abuse of staff members.

He said: “If you go with a video which has captured the entire incident then there are no feeble excuses, you are caught bang to rights.”

The maximum sentence for people found guilty of assault against a police officer doubled from six months to a year in November last year.

Gov.uk states that this covers police, prison officers, custody officers, fire service personnel, search and rescue services and paramedics.

Report by Jessica Goddard

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