A woman has been sentenced after assaulting two emergency workers at the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro.

Rebecca Jane Dawson, aged 39, of Burgess Foundry Row, Trevithick View, Camborne, attacked a male and a female police officer who were both acting in the exercise of their duties as emergency workers at the hospital on February 6, 2023.

Dawson was charged with assaulting the officers by beating them and pleaded guilty to both of the charges when she appeared in front of magistrates at Truro Magistrates Court on March 23, 2023. 

During her sentencing, Dawson was conditionally discharged for a period of three years.

In addition to the conditional discharge, Dawson was ordered to pay compensation of £100 to each of the victims, pay a surcharge to fund victim services of £26, and pay costs of £85 to the Crown Prosecution Service.

The court also noted how Dawson’s guilty pleas had been taken into account when imposing the sentence.

According to the Sentencing Council, sentences handed down for these types of offences vary depending on a number of factors such as whether the offence committed was common assault, actual bodily harm, or grievous bodily harm or wounding.

Sentences are also worked out by assessing harm and culpability, that is, whether the attack was sustained or repeated and how responsible the offender was for the assault.

The maximum sentence for a common assault that isn't against an emergency worker or racially or religiously aggravated is six months custody.

This raises to one year's custody if the assault is against an emergency worker and two years custody if the assault is religiously or racially motivated.