A 55-year-old Angus man has been cleared of assaulting police officers by farting on them.
A jury heard Colin Simpson attacked officers by “passing wind and burping on them whilst laughing.”
The jury at Dundee Sheriff Court was told Simpson carried out the unpleasant behaviour after officers picked him up in relation to a driving offence.
They heard Simpson’s wind-based attacks on the two officers first took place in a Dundee street but were then repeated at the city’s police HQ.
Simpson had originally been charged with endangering the lives of police officers Luke Doogan and Stuart Walker but that aggravation was dropped by the Crown before the trial.
Accused faced numerous charges
Simpson, of Brothick Way, Arbroath, denied assaulting PC Doogan in Lochee Road in that he did “repeatedly cough, pass wind and burp on him, whilst laughing and refusing to disclose if he had any Covid-19 symptoms.”
He faced an identical allegation relating to PC Walker.
Simpson also denied two charges of attacking the officers at police HQ in Bell Street by carrying out the same bodily functions against them.
He also pled not guilty to driving his BMW carelessly and at excessive speed in various streets around Dundee on May 17.
He denied straddling the centre line, braking harshly, driving on the wrong side of the road, failing to give way or slow down for a red light and going through a junction at speed.
He denied having no insurance and failing to give his details to police, before acting in a threatening or abusive manner by shouting, swearing, clenching his fists and uttering threats of violence.
Simpson denied then resisting arrest by tensing his arms to prevent officers cuffing him and lashing out with his legs.
‘Ridiculous’ case
PC Walker told the court Simpson had farted in his direction as they arrested him for driving through a red light and failing to give way at a junction.
However, he accepted the incident had simply amounted to Simpson breaking wind as the officers tried to cuff him as he bent forward onto the bonnet of his car.
The officer also accepted Simpson had not turned into his face to cough, burp and laugh but said the accused had not turned away.
Simpson further denied engaging in sexual activity in the presence of officers and urinating and intentionally exposing his genitals in a sexual manner.
It was alleged his “intention was for them to see them for the purpose of humiliating, distressing or alarming them.”
After the court heard the first officer’s evidence, fiscal depute Stewart Duncan said the Crown would not be calling any more witnesses and were no longer seeking a conviction.
Sheriff Lorna Drummond QC formally acquitted Simpson.
Outside court, he said the case against him had been “ridiculous.”
