A Durham man who bombarded emergency services call handlers with sexually explicit calls has been told he faces a substantial prison sentence.
Anthony Marsh appeared at Newton Aycliffe Magistrates on Wednesday (April 29) and pleaded guilty to two charges of malicious communications from incidents in March and April.
The court heard how the 39-year-old called the NHS number 111 and 999 more than 100 times in just one 24-hour period last month and would be sexually explicit with female call handlers, causing them distress.
Both the 111 and 999 call systems have faced unprecedented demand during the national lockdown.
Marsh, of Tenth Street, Blackhall, appeared by video link and was remanded into custody while the prison service prepares a report.
Emergency Operations Centre manager for the North East Ambulance Service, Lynn Huldie, said:
“We must always prioritise our resources to those most in need.
“Frequent callers can impact upon our ability to provide the best service to other patients.
“We recognise that often the reason someone becomes a frequent caller to 999 services is due to an unmet need, be it social or medical and we have a dedicated team who proactively work with GPs, mental health and community healthcare partners to put plans in place to support such callers the best we can.
“Unfortunately, there are occasions when all of our attempts to support a frequent caller and reduce the impact of their behaviour on emergency services fail.
“At that point we will work with other agencies to explore options to manage the issue.
“Whilst we will explore all opportunities to support frequent callers, we take a zero-tolerance approach to any form of abuse against our staff.
“Our people come to work to help the public of the North East and do not deserve to be abused in the course of doing their job.
“All key workers are working hard in a challenging environment right now and to face abuse of this nature is unforgivable.”
PC Jayne Marshall, of Peterlee CID, said:
“These calls were very distressing to the call handlers who do such an important job, especially at this time.
“They did not deserve to be abused by Marsh, who acted selfishly but taking their time away from those in genuine need.”
If you would like to help support our in-house team of former emergency services, NHS and armed forces personnel, then please consider becoming a donor.
With ad revenue continually fluctuating, we need the help of our readers and supporters to ensure that we can continue to bring you the stories which matter in a non-biased and non-inflammatory way.
Our Editor & Founder will send a personal email to donors, thanking them for their generosity.
TODAY’S TOP VIDEO – EDITORS PICK
Before you go...
We need your help. As former emergency services & armed forces personnel, we pride ourselves on bringing you important, fast-moving and breaking news stories which are free from the negative bias which is often directed at the emergency services by some sections of the mainstream media.
One of the reasons we started 'Emergency Services News' was because we became tired of reading badly informed stories about the emergency services which seemed only ever to highlight negative aspects of the job.
We want to be the unheard voice of the remarkable men and women who serve in the emergency services, NHS and armed forces. And with around 500k page views each month, we are getting there!
As income from ads, the mainstay source of income for most publishers, continues to decline; we need the help of our readers.
And remember, if you have a service, product or job vacancy that you would like to promote to our large readership, then you can buy advertising space in our articles.
You can support emergency services news from as little as £1. It only takes a minute. Every contribution, however big or small, is vital for our future.
Please help us to continue to highlight the life-saving work of the emergency services, NHS and armed forces by becoming a supporter.
