A MAN who demonstrated ‘abhorrent’ and ‘utterly disgusting’ behaviour has been jailed for throwing blood-soaked tissues at a female police officer.

Ross Johnson, of Broad Close in Barrow, was jailed at Preston Crown Court on August 14 after pleading guilty to charges of assault by beating of an emergency worker and attempted burglary other than a dwelling with intent to steal.  

Prosecutor Emily Land, opening the case at an earlier hearing, said the assault occurred after Johnson – aged 27 - was arrested in the early hours of the morning for an unrelated matter.

She said: “PS Tresham was on duty conducting the booking-in process with the defendant at approximately 3am at Kendal Police Station on April 15.

“During this time the defendant was given a box of tissues to wipe blood from his nose. PS Tresham could tell he was under the influence as he was unsteady on his feet, slurring his words, shouting and behaving erratically.

“The defendant became more and more irate, threatening to spit blood in the officer’s face. He has then thrown his blood-soaked tissues at her."

The court was told Johnson received the blooded nose following a confrontation with another male.

Ms Land said officers then received a call from the owner of Station View Newsagents in Kendal saying he had received a notification on his phone that movement had been detected in his shop at around 2am that morning.

“He checked the CCTV and saw a male in black joggers trying to break through the front door of the shop multiple times, kicking it and pushing his own body against it,” Ms Land said.

“He was running towards the front of the shop and throwing himself towards the door approximately eight times.”

CCTV footage played in court confirmed this to be the defendant.

The court heard Johnson responded ‘no comment’ to all questions asked except when being shown the CCTV footage, to which he replied ‘not me that’.  

The court was told Johnson was subject to two community orders at the time of these offences - one of which for a previous assault on an emergency worker.

He had also accumulated 36 previous convictions for 65 offences.

In mitigation, Anthony Parkinson said: “He has been in custody since April 16 and has now served the equivalent of an eight-month sentence.

“He was drinking heavily and had taken a quantity of Valium tablets at the time of these offences.

“He has no recollection of the attempted burglary and incident in the custody suite. He wrongly believed the injury to his nose had been caused by a police officer.”

Her Honour Judge Heather Lloyd said immediate custody was inevitable.  

Before passing sentence, she told Johnson: “What you did was utterly disgusting. Your behaviour was abhorrent.

"Police officers are doing a very stressful job. They should not have to cope with people like you behaving like that.

“You have not taken any of the opportunities the court has given you in the past. The pre-sentence report makes for very unhappy reading. You say you find working too stressful – what makes you think you shouldn’t work?

“The state pays you £1,000 p/m in benefits which you spend on drink and drugs. You do not show any sense of responsibility at all.

“It may well be you had an appalling childhood, but you cannot keep using that as an excuse at the age of 27. You do not have much desire to rehabilitate.”

As a result, Johnson received an additional two month jail sentence.