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| Hundreds of people attend illegal rave near Lichfield | |
| (about 2 hours later) | |
| An officer was spat on as more than 1,000 revellers attended an illegal rave, police have said. | |
| Crowds descended on Brookhay Woods, near Lichfield, on Saturday night, creating a noisy disturbance and a "mile" of rubbish, locals said. | |
| Staffordshire Police attempted to disperse those attending by slowing down traffic on the nearby A38. | |
| Jordan Jewkes, 18, of Medina, Tamworth, has been charged with assaulting a police officer by spitting. | |
| Pictures taken on Sunday morning show the ground in Brookhay Woods strewn with cans, bottles, nitrous oxide (laughing gas) canisters, and balloons. | |
| 'Litter for a mile' | 'Litter for a mile' |
| One local, who lives close to Brookhay Woods, where the rave was held, said she had never seen a mess like it in her life. | One local, who lives close to Brookhay Woods, where the rave was held, said she had never seen a mess like it in her life. |
| "It was a carpet of bottles, cartridges, cans, bottles filled with various coloured liquids, bags, clothes.... the biggest concentration was by and in the stream in the woods but there is litter for a mile or so radius," she said. | "It was a carpet of bottles, cartridges, cans, bottles filled with various coloured liquids, bags, clothes.... the biggest concentration was by and in the stream in the woods but there is litter for a mile or so radius," she said. |
| She added a friend of hers had been kept awake all night by the commotion and that a young man they came across picking up his car had shown no remorse for the mess or the disturbance to residents. | She added a friend of hers had been kept awake all night by the commotion and that a young man they came across picking up his car had shown no remorse for the mess or the disturbance to residents. |
| Cars left abandoned at the site are now being removed. | Cars left abandoned at the site are now being removed. |
| "An estimated 500-plus people attended who have shown a complete disregard for public safety and the current Covid-19 lockdown restrictions," police said. | "An estimated 500-plus people attended who have shown a complete disregard for public safety and the current Covid-19 lockdown restrictions," police said. |
| Officers were still turning people away who were arriving as they closed the event down. | Officers were still turning people away who were arriving as they closed the event down. |
| The traffic on the A38 was slowed as a precaution, police said, and BTP officers were called out because there is a railway line nearby. | The traffic on the A38 was slowed as a precaution, police said, and BTP officers were called out because there is a railway line nearby. |
| Mr Jewkes is also charged with being drunk and disorderly and will appear before Cannock Magistrates' Court on Wednesday. | |
| The event took place at the same time as two large illegal raves held in Greater Manchester where a man died of a suspected overdose, three people were stabbed and a woman was raped. | |
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