999 Sex Caller Jailed

A man who made obscene and sexually explicit calls to police 999 operators has been jailed.

Aston Jordan, from Slade Road in Erdington, was sentenced to six months by Birmingham magistrates.

In an incident lasting four hours, the 25-year-old labourer bombarded staff with drunken 999 calls, in which he verbally abused, threatened and made sexually explicit comments to female operators.

It began at 00:13 in the early hours of Sunday 14 July, when Mr Jordan called 999 to say he had breached an injunction when a former girlfriend had visited his home.

Officers attended the scene to check everything was in order. They assured Mr Jordan no crimes had been committed as the woman had visited him of her own free will.

But Mr Jordan then made an additional 26 calls to the 999 service, claiming to be an MP and reporting that cars were performing wheel spins outside his home.

He also said a "crazy person" was slapping him and others were outside his home armed with machetes.

Another call heard Mr Jordan claim to be the victim of harassing phone calls, while during others he taunted emergency workers and made extreme, sexually explicit comments.

Officers then began to worry that members of the public could be put at risk while staff were dealing with the prank calls and not managing real-life emergencies.

Chief Inspector Sally Holmes, from the Force Contact Centre, said: "Misuse of the 999 system deflects police resources and time away from people in genuine need of assistance or those who are reporting serious crimes.

"Every year West Midlands Police receives more than four million telephone calls, including nearly 700,000 emergency calls, many of which are not genuine emergencies.

"Dialling 999 should be used for genuine emergencies only: This is defined as a crime in progress, if someone suspected of a crime is nearby, when there is danger to life or when violence is being used of threatened - in this case it was our staff who were being threatened with sexual violence."

Aston Jordan was arrested at 04:30am on 14 July on suspicion of making malicious communications.

He was later charged and on 13 August at Birmingham Magistrates Court he was found guilty and sentenced to 24 weeks in prison.

(IT/CD)