Yob couldn’t remember spitting and hitting officers

A boozed-up lout spat on a police officer’s face and then struck another officer while being searched.

William McCord, 35, was so drunk he has no memory of kicking off at cops called to a disturbance in a footpath near to Falcon Road, Johnstone.

Paisley Sheriff Court heard McCord had been locked up since the incident last month, charged with police assault.

Fiscal depute Saud Hassan said: “At around 10.40pm on December 30, police witnesses had reason to attend to speak to the accused.

“After being placed under arrest, he was handcuffed and he spat at a police officer. The spit landed on his cheek.

“The accused was placed in the prone position and a spit hood was fitted to his head and he was conveyed to Helen Street police office.”

The prosecutor added that when father-of-two McCord was searched at the police station, “the accused broke free and hit an officer below the left eye with his hand”.

He added: “There was swelling and redness on the officer’s face.”

McCord pleaded guilty to charges of assaulting a police officer by spitting on his face and to a second assault on another officer by striking him.

Defence agent Amy Spencer said her client had drank so much booze that he has no memory of the incident.

She said: “When he takes a drink, he becomes an entirely different person.

“When he woke up in the cells, he was completely bamboozled about what he was doing there.

“He drank himself to a complete blackout, but he fully accepts responsibility for the conduct that landed him there.”

Sheriff Susan Sinclair said she had no option but to hand him a jail term, given the gravity of the offence.

But she added that she would take into account the time he had already spent in custody.

She said: “This conduct is completely unacceptable.”

She handed him a four-month sentence in jail, backdated from January 3 — the date he first appeared in court.

We he woke up in the cells, he was completely bamboozled about what he was doing there