Prison for assault on police and paramedic

Saturday 13 October 2018

Assaulting police officers and a paramedic has seen a man sent to prison for 16 months.

Robert Batiste, 35, pleaded guilty in Guernsey's Magistrates Court to assaulting four police officers and a paramedic, but he did not wait in the dock to hear his sentence.

Instead he chose to talk back to the judge and then left via the back door to the holding cells, all while shouting expletives.

He'd been arrested on 15 June at Les Genats Estate when Guernsey Police were called out, as the defendant was reportedly trying to gain access to another address. When they arrived they found Batiste in an agitated state and he was shouting at them, saying: "Come to my house and I will overdose on insulin."

The court heard he had goaded officers and they watched as he injected himself numerous times with a needle. He continued to shout expletives at officers and then charged towards them, falling over as he did, injuring his head on the pavement.

Paramedics were called to help, while the police officers tried to restrain Batiste, but he then bit one of them on the hand twice. 

At the hospital both the police officers and paramedics had to restrain Batiste as he became agitated, shouting things like, "I hate paramedics, I hate the police."

Pictured: Batiste was taken to the Emergency Department, where he assaulted police officers and paramedics. 

During a struggle with a female paramedic he head butted her in the chest and injured her arm. The court was shown CCTV footage of this and his subsequent behaviour in hospital. He threatened the police and medical professionals present that he would remove a bandage dressing over a bloody wound, which would risk infecting staff with Hepatitis C.

Batiste was later taken into custody after he asked to be arrested instead of staying in hospital, but during this time he kicked one of the police officers violently to the shin. He was eventually bailed and went home.

On 20 July 2018, police officers were once again called to the defendant's address where they found him shouting expletives in the front garden and saying to the police: "I will have you all."

He threatened to bite an officer and head butted the walls and floors of the police van when being taken into custody.

Batiste remained in prison until being sentenced this week, when Judge Cherry McMillan noted he had 101 entries on his record, with many similar matters of resisting arrest and violence towards the police.

It was noted that Batiste had written a letter of remorse to the paramedics but he had not shown any remorse to the police officers. At this point Batiste shouted from the dock: "They are all bullies."

The judge said his actions and further outburst left her in no doubt that Batiste was a danger and asked him not to talk over her when she was sentencing. She continued saying that he had no respect for the police and said that he had failed to notice the compassion shown by one officer when viewing the CCTV that he had pulled the defendant's shirt down to preserve his modesty.

At this point Batiste again shouted from the dock: "Give him a ••• medal." He then walked out of the dock down to the police custody cell shouting as he left, not staying to hear his sentence.

The judge continued to pass sentence in his absence stating that the police and paramedics should be able to go about their work without risk of being in danger.

Batiste was given 16 months in prison for the assaults and was ordered to pay a total of £1,000 in compensation to be shared between the four police officers and paramedic who were involved in this incident.