Man gets out of jail... gets drunk... punches cop

A TERRITORY criminal with a grog problem wound up back behind bars after he got obscenely drunk and punched a policewoman in the mouth — less than 15 hours after he had been released from prison.

Winston Davey pleaded guilty to one count of assaulting police when he faced Darwin Local Court.

Judge Dick Wallace told him: “You made a complete idiot of yourself.

“I think most people would laugh at this (offending) — if the police officer hadn’t been hurt.”

The court heard Davey, who served 2½ years in Holtze for aggravated assault and deprivation of liberty, bumped into a mate and got “hopelessly drunk” instead of going home to Gunbalanya when he walked out of jail on January 16.

Prosecutor Mark Seiler said two police officers were sent to investigate an unrelated case at a house where Davey was drinking.

“He was stumbling around the veranda and being obnoxious,” Mr Seiler said.

“He was not a person of interest but he kept asking what police were doing there.

“He said ‘ do you want to fight’, and without warning punched (a female police officer) in the mouth.”

The cop was knocked to the ground.

The momentum of the punch and his intoxication sent Davey crashing down after her.

The other officer cuffed him.

Defence lawyer Rory Pettit said his client had an “enormously problematic addiction to booze” and had apologised to the victim.

Davey was convicted and sentenced to five months in prison, backdated to allow for five weeks he spent on remand.

Mr Wallace released him on a conditional suspended sentence bond so he could attend residential rehabilitation and ordered him not to consume alcohol.