2-YEAR COMMUNITY ORDER FOR SHANKLIN MAN WHO RACIALLY ABUSED POLICE OFFICER

A Shanklin man unloaded a tirade of abuse on a female Police Officer has been handed a 24-month community order and been told to pay compensation of £200. Frederick Medway, 32, of Atherley Road in Shanklin, admitted sending by public communication network an offensive message and racially/religiously aggravated intentional harassment when he appeared at the Isle of Wight Magistrates Court today (Friday). Lauren Stone, prosecuting, told the court that on 19th July last year, whilst under Police supervision at St Mary’s Hospital, Medway started verbally abusing a female officer calling her ‘dirty’ and that she wasn’t capable of dealing with things. Medway was taken to a secure room where he launched another tirade of abuse, calling the officers ‘dimlo’, ‘smeagle’ and ‘mowgli’ – to which he asked those in the room if they had ever read the Rudyard Kipling book, The Jungle Book. Medway was told the ‘mowgli’ comment was deemed offensive by the officer in question, but he continued to make it. The 32-year-old made comment about the officer’s handwriting as she was filling out some paperwork saying that ‘her handwriting looked like a cripple had written it’. The unemployed Shanklin man had initially denied committing the offence, but he was found guilty at trial. Separately, on 20th January this year, Medway left a hoard of voice notes to a family member exclaiming dismay that he wasn’t able to see a relative in hospital on the mainland. The court heard how the messages included calling the victim a ‘self entitled pr**k’ and calling them a ‘dirty disrespectful moomin’. In a victim personal statement read aloud in court, the victim said they had considered putting their child into care as a result of Medway’s actions. Defending, Oscar Vincent, told the court that Medway had been registered disabled following a serious road traffic collision back in 2016 and that the medication he has since had to take impacts severely on his mood. Medway has a total of 15 convictions for a total of 40 offences. Magistrates told Medway that he ‘should be disgusted with the language that he used and that it is something he needs to curb’. Frederick Medway was handed a 24-month community order with a 19-day thinking skills programme and 30 rehabilitation days attached. He was ordered to pay compensation of £200.