Couple spent wedding night in separate police cells after drunken brawl at celebration party

A newlywed couple spent their wedding night behind bars after a drunken after-party went wrong. Kristina Perczyk, of Tunbridge Wells, Kent, called police to help out after a fight broke out between two wedding guests at her home on August 22. When officers arrived, they found her new husband Joseph Shannon asleep on the doorstep, Sevenoaks Magistrates' Court heard on Friday.

He then became aggressive, and as officers tried to arrest him, his wife grabbed hold of one of them, PC Wells, and obstructed him. The pair were then taken to the police station, where they spent their first night as man and wife in custody. The former Miss Perczyk pleaded guilty to a charge of obstructing a constable in the execution of duty.



Mitigating, Brian Ferris said: "She wanted police to avoid taking her husband away on the day of her wedding." The court heard the 36-year-old had previous form, after being convicted of assaulting a police officer in Tunbridge Wells on July 17 last year. Mr Justice Baron said the couple had already paid for their crimes by having to spend their wedding night in police cells. The defendant, who works as a freelance photographer, was sentenced to a conditional discharge for 12 months and fined a total of £250.

Shannon appeared before the same court on Tuesday over the same incident, charged with being drunk and disorderly in public and assaulting four officers in the line of duty. Shannon pleaded guilty to assaulting two police officers and two special constables during his August 22 arrest. He was handed a 12-month community order with 120 hours of unpaid work. He was also handed a £60 victim surcharge and ordered to pay £235 in costs. The court did not impose a compensation order because the injuries suffered by the four officers was deemed too minor.