A CARDIFF man has been jailed for 12 weeks after he inflicted a drunken assault on a Barry ambulance technician sent to aid him.

David O’Callaghan, of Heol Trelai, Cardiff, pleaded guilty to assaulting emergency medical technician Dean Caldwell, by beating him, at Cymric Close, Cardiff, at 3.50am on July, 1 this year.

Dean suffered facial injuries and the ambulance was rendered out of service for the rest of the shift – meaning it was unavailable to attend other calls.

O’Callaghan, 38, was also ordered to pay an £80 government surcharge and £150 court costs during the hearing at Cardiff Magistrates Court on Tuesday, August 11.

District Judge, Neil Thomas said O’Callaghan had committed “nothing more than gratuitous self-induced drunken violence” when Mr Caldwell and his colleague Robert Jones had arrived at the address.

Prosecuting, Alex Slater said that the crew had arrived to treat the drunken O’Callaghan who was initially unresponsive, but he jumped out of a carry chair, swore at Dean and “threw a flurry of punches.”

In his victim impact statement, read out in court, Dean who has worked for the ambulance service for 15 years said he had never before been subjected to violence.

Dean, a current Barry Dock RNLI lifeboat volunteer crew member and a former boxer, rated the punch as 10 out of 10 on a pain scale.

Defending O’Callaghan, Simon Joseph said: “He was confused and dazed. He’s apologised. He can’t explain why he acted the way he did. There was a potential lack of understanding of the situation.”

Sentencing O’Callaghan, District Judge Neil Thomas said “unpleasant” and “nasty injuries” had been caused and an ambulance was, as a result, unavailable for any need required by the general public.

He added: “Medics need protection from this sort of behaviour.”

Following the verdict, Dean said: "I am content with the verdict and I'm glad justice has been done.

"I was only doing my job and trying to help a patient as all ambulance staff do. I'd simply ask the public to respect ambulance staff and allow us to get on with our jobs of saving lives and treating patients."

Also following the verdict, Welsh Ambulance Service head of operations for Cardiff and the Vale, Bob Tooby said the service does everything it can to ensure a safe environment for patients, staff and volunteers.

He said: “We uphold a zero tolerance policy against any form of physical and verbal abuse and, as in this case, we work closely with the police forces and Crown Prosecution Service in prosecuting offenders.

“We condemn any form of abuse against frontline staff. Such actions can stop them from carrying out their duties, as happened as a result of this assault, and this in turn ultimately means that an ambulance resource is taken away from someone who really needs it the most.

“Please treat our staff just as you would wish them to treat you.”