Police officers headbutted and spat at during incident in Co Tyrone

Police officers were head butted and spat at during an incident in Co Tyrone.

A 42-year-old man was arrested following a two-car collision on the Omagh Road in Ballygawley at around 8pm on Thursday.

A police spokesperson said he was arrested on suspicion of two counts of assault on police, driving whilst unfit through drink or drugs and resisting arrest.

They said officers responded and found that one of the drivers had fled from the scene on foot. He was located a short distance away at the rear of a local bar, however, upon detection, he head-butted a police officer, causing her injury.

The spokesperson said the man was arrested and taken to hospital as a precaution, where he spat in the face of a second police officer.

Chief Inspector Scott Fallis said there should be no tolerance for attacks on police officers.

“To be head-butted, spat on or assaulted in any way whilst simply doing your job is sickening and it should never, ever be thought of as an acceptable consequence of working in policing,” he said.

“It is to the credit of the two police officers involved that they remained on duty for the remainder of their shifts and continued to provide a policing service to our community throughout the night.

“Police officers come to work to help people, to provide a service and they should never expect to be attacked for it. There should be no tolerance in society for attacks on police.”