A Somali asylum seeker who spat at a police officer while staying at a migrant hotel in Bournemouth was given a 12‑month conditional discharge by magistrates on Monday after pleading guilty to assaulting an emergency worker.
Shafi Momad, 30, was arrested after officers were called to the Roundhouse hotel in Bournemouth following a disturbance. Prosecutors told Poole Magistrates' Court that officers were required to restrain Momad after he became "very angry" and had consumed about half a bottle of vodka and beers. When PC Browning took hold of him, the court heard, Momad made a visible effort to spit and some of the saliva landed on the officer's hand.
Momad pleaded guilty to the charge at the magistrates' court. Chair magistrate Paul Kemp described an assault on an emergency worker as a "serious matter" but decided to issue a conditional discharge for 12 months, meaning Momad will not be punished now but can be sentenced for the offence if he commits further offences within the year.
Prosecutor Nicola Reece told the court that officers were called to the hotel after reports of a disturbance and that additional units were asked to assist in restraining Mumad. She said the defendant later told officers he had a "problem with drink." The court was told the incident occurred before Momad was sentenced for an earlier offence.
Momad was already serving a six‑week suspended prison sentence for a religiously aggravated assault on a member of the public. Because the spitting incident occurred before he was sentenced in March for that earlier offence, magistrates said the later incident could not be taken into account when deciding the sanction for the earlier conviction.
In mitigation, Momad's solicitor said he had been attacked and had a bloodied eye before police arrived, and that he was angry because he felt officers had not investigated the people who assaulted him. The solicitor told the court Momad apologised and that he has been in the United Kingdom since 2020, is not permitted to work and suffers periods of depression. The court was also told he acknowledged a problem with alcohol.
Magistrate Kemp told Momad: "You are not being punished today; however, if you commit any other offences during the next 12 months you can be punished for today's offence as well as newer offences." Because of Momad's limited means, the officer was awarded £50 in compensation and Momad was not ordered to pay court costs or a surcharge.
The incident comes amid local tensions in Bournemouth over the use of several historic hotels to accommodate asylum seekers. Authorities have used the Roundhouse, the Britannia and the Chine hotels to house people seeking asylum, a move that has prompted protests and complaints from some residents. Local reporting has said that, as of last month, some 91 criminal charges had been brought against migrants staying at the Roundhouse and Britannia hotels on Meyrick Road, and a further 25 charges at the Chine Hotel, totaling 116 charges against 51 asylum seekers across the three sites.
Protests have been staged outside the hotels, and police and security guards have increased patrols in the area. Residents quoted in local media said the presence of the hotels and related incidents had changed the character of parts of the town and contributed to concerns about safety, particularly at night.
Court records show the criminal justice process treated the two matters separately because of the timing of the offences and the earlier sentence. Magistrates balanced the circumstances of the spitting incident, including the defendant's guilty plea and personal circumstances, against the statutory view that assaults on emergency workers are serious offences. The conditional discharge will remain in place for 12 months.