A police officer was left ‘demoralised’ and questioning the lack of public support after he was pushed into the River Glen, a court has heard.
PC 147 Ivanovs said nobody helped after he was pushed into the water by Cavan Gaunt while responding to an incident outside The Riverside pub in Surfleet on Friday, July 11.
Gaunt admitted a charge of assaulting an emergency worker at Boston Magistrates’ Court last week.
The hearing was told PC Ivanovs was sent after a member of the public reported children jumping from the A16 bridge into the river.
Prosecutor Turan Sunat said the reason Gaunt pushed the officer in was ‘completely unknown’.
In a victim statement, PC Ivanovs said he felt ‘exposed’ and ‘apprehensive’ about the potential for infection after being in the river while wearing both stab and tactical vests.
“The incident left me feeling humiliated, vulnerable and extremely frustrated,” the court was told. “As a police officer you experience verbal abuse and occasionally physical abuse time and time again but this, when in public, felt like a grievous violation.
“The lack of co-operation from those standing on the river bank was demoralising.
“It made me personally question how we were supported in the field, particularly in an environment where the public should offer assistance when a uniformed officer is targeted.
“The risk to my own safety was very real. I could have been drowned by the kit I was wearing, or if I’d been struck by an object below the water.”
Gaunt was ‘not regularly before the court or in the business of causing trouble’, defence solicitor Daven Neghen said.
“He says he would have dived in to help the officer but there was already someone in the water. It was done with no malice. He realises it wasn’t a good idea.”
District judge Daniel Church said part of the reason he didn’t send Gaunt immediately to prison was that his fiancée was 37 weeks’ pregnant.
Gaunt (26), of Red House Farm, Broad Drove, Gosberton Clough, was given an 18-week jail sentence suspended for 18 months and ordered to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work.
He was also ordered to pay £200 compensation to PC Ivanovs, £85 costs and a £154 victim surcharge.
The hearing was told Gaunt had drunk ‘one or two’ pints when the incident happened but Judge Church said: “I take it that your judgements were clouded by alcohol or would be very alarmed if you were stone cold sober and felt it was fine to push an officer in the river.
“I hope you now realise in retrospect the humourless joke or game wasn’t appreciated and was wholly out of order.
“At the time you may have thought it was a joke but the reality is that it was an officer at work wearing a stab vest who could have been hurt by an object in the river, or drowned.
“I’m prepared to give you the benefit of the doubt. You will learn a lesson from this.”
