Northallerton Magistrates Court heard Jack Beattie, of Middlesbrough, struggled to get out of the passenger seat of a car found in a ditch at Sheepwash, on the North York Moors, near Osmotherley, at 6.30am on March 17. Michael Hammond, prosecuting, said North Yorkshire Police officers PC Mark Thompson and PC Mark Waller had found the 23-year-old in the car with two friends after binge drinking.
When Beattie left the car, he stumbled and slapped a police officer on the back several times, punched one on the chest before becoming embroiled in a brawl that saw him on top of an officer on the ground, leading to the officer suffering cuts and bruises. Beattie thrashed around on the ground and attempted to persuade a friend to smash the windows of the nearby police car before he was subdued.
The court was told Beattie, who admitted being drunk and disorderly and two counts of assaulting a police officer, had previous convictions for assault, being drunk and disorderly and assaulting a police officer. Nick Woodward, mitigating, said: "He accepts that he and his friends had been drinking heavily before. He accepts that he sarcastically slapped one of the officers on the back." Magistrate Ron Stead told Beattie he would also be subject to a 12-month community order.
1 comment:
The headline makes it sound like the guy got the book thrown at him for slapping a policeman on the back, while the body tells a different story. After reading it, it's easy to see why he had to pay a penalty.
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