A man who made more than 100 abusive calls to the emergency services has been sentenced.

Adil Hassan, 36, from Cardiff, made more than 100 calls to the Welsh Ambulance Service between 10 and 16 May.

He also made multiple calls to South Wales Police.

He pleaded guilty to the persistent use of a public communications network to cause annoyance, inconvenience or anxiety.

Hassan was sentenced at Cardiff Magistrates’ Court to 24 weeks in prison, suspended for 18 months, for this and other charges, including intentionally or recklessly causing a public nuisance.

Laura Charles works as a duty control manager for the Welsh Ambulance Service.

She said it was “by far the worst verbal abuse” she had ever experienced.

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“Call takers from all three of our control rooms in Wales had to tolerate his vile language, all while dealing with a high volume of calls into the service,” she said.

“One minute, we were taking a call for a cardiac arrest from a distraught family member, and the next we were being called a whore by Hassan.”

‘Abhorrent’

Ms Charles said having abuse over the phone “can be just as damaging” as in person.

“Call takers are trained to remain calm and conduct themselves professionally regardless of what they are dealing with, but the abuse by Hassan made this difficult,” she added.

“We did as much as we could to support call takers during his bombardment, but I can’t begin to tell you the impact it had on them.”

Lee Brooks, executive director of operations for the service, said the time spent dealing with Hassan’s calls “could have been spent helping someone”.

“One abusive call is one too many, but more than 100 is frankly abhorrent,” he said.

“These are call takers who come to work to help people in their darkest hour, so to have been at the receiving end of Hassan’s barrage of abuse is heartbreaking and not acceptable.”

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Detective Inspector Andy Lewis from South Wales Police said Hassan’s actions “potentially risked the health and safety of the public”.

“No one should be subjected to the kind of language that Hassan used during the calls,” he added.

“South Wales Police will do all we can to protect emergency service colleagues and the public in cases such as this.”

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