By Ian Lewis
The Bristol Evening Post
CENARTH, Wales — A paramedic was butted in the kneecap by a drunken man who had been out drinking with friends.
Andrew David Powell, aged 23, of Ardwyn, Pencader, pleaded guilty to a charge of common assault at Carmarthen magistrates court last Wednesday.
The court heard an ambulance had been called to a house in Cenarth in the early hours of March 18, where Powell was living at the time.
Prosecutor Ellie Morgan said emergency services had been alerted following concerns about his medical condition as he was very drunk.
Powell had spent the evening in the village watching the last Six Nations rugby match on television.
Miss Morgan: “When the paramedics arrived they could see the defendant was feigning unconsciousness laying on the floor before waking up and shouting ‘my chest, I’m not a druggie’ and that he was ‘not going to hospital’.
“He then got up onto his knees, looked up at one of the paramedics in front of him — Gregory Whitelock — and butted his right knee in a quick, deliberate assault.
“He then sarcastically smiled and said, ‘sorry, I don’t think so’.”
Police did not speak to Powell until May — some two months after the attack — as he had changed his address to live in Pencader.
He was then charged with assaulting Mr Whitelock, who had been a paramedic for 22 years.
In a statement read out by Miss Morgan, Mr Whitelock said he had been shocked and sickened at the very painful attack.
She added: “The assault on him has made him think more about the dangers he faces every day.”
She added Mr Whitelock still has pain in his knee.
Defence solicitor Aled Owen said: “He is uncertain whether his drinks may have been spiked or drank something he was not used to.
“This incident and his behaviour has shocked him and he agrees it does seem an odd way to assault someone from a prayer-like kneeling position.”
Mr Own added: “My client’s behaviour was affected by alcohol on the night in question.”
Magistrates gave Powell a 12- month community order of unpaid work.
He was also ordered to pay £100 compensation to the paramedic Mr Whitelock and £85 court costs.
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