Portsmouth man arrested after alleged racist attack in Commercial Road as Hampshire police officer assaulted

A Portsmouth man has been arrested after a man shouted racist abuse in the street in an incident which injured a police officer. Watch more of our videos on Shots! and live on Freeview channel 276

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Conor James Hodgkins, 32, of Elm Grove, Southsea, was charged with several offences following the "shocking" incident, which happened on Saturday, December 9. A force spokesperson said: "Officers from the Portsmouth Central neighbourhood team were out patrolling Commercial Road yesterday, both uniformed and in plain clothes, as part of an operation to combat anti-social behaviour and theft in the lead up to Christmas.

A Hampshire police officer was injured during the incident.

"While out, our attention was drawn to a person alleged to be shouting racist comments at someone in the street.

Officers intervened and arrested the man, which required other members of the team to attend and assist. During this, one officer suffered a head injury. "Obviously, it was extremely busy in Commercial Road and we know it can be shocking for people to see officers having to deal with incidents like this.

I can now update you that Conor James Hodgkins, 32, of Elm Grove, Southsea, has been charged with a number of offences, and remanded in custody to appear at Portsmouth Magistrates' Court on Monday morning."

He has been charged with:

Two counts of criminal damage
One count of assaulting a person occasioning actual bodily harm
Three counts of assault by beating of an emergency worker
One count of common assault of an emergency worker
One count of racially or religiously aggravated harassment, alarm, or distress by words
One count of using threatening or abusive words or behaviour, likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress
One count of possession of a controlled drug of class B - cannabis
The person who was subjected to the alleged racist comments is asked to call 101, quoting the reference 44230503084.

References

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