A FALMOUTH man who assaulted a police officer by beating him has been sentenced by a court in Cornwall. 

Kerry Reeve, aged 48, of Esperanza Court, Falmouth, appeared in front of magistrates at Truro Magistrates' Court on Thursday, December 21, 2023, on one count of assault by beating of an emergency worker. 

The offence took place on December 4, 2023, in Falmouth where Reeve assaulted an emergency worker, namely a Police Officer, acting in the exercise of his functions as such a worker, by beating him. 

Reeve indicated a plea of guilty to the offence with the court noting that the offence was aggravated due to the fact that Reeve had assaulted a police constable. 

During his sentencing, Reeve was made the subject of a community order under which she must participate in a rehabilitation activity for a maximum period of 10 days. He was also fined £200 and made to pay costs of £85 to the Crown Prosecution Service as well as pay a surcharge of £114. 

The court noted how Reeve's guilty plea was 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.