Yob jailed after attacking two police officers
A yob who attacked two police officers after they found him slumped on a park bench with an empty bottle of whisky at his side has been jailed.
Michael Paul Sanders assaulted the pair in a police car after they had arrested him on suspicion of being drunk and disorderly in Hetton Lyons Country Park last summer.
South Tyneside Magistrates’ Court was told that he kicked the male driver in the head while driving and bite the officer’s female colleague in the upper left arm.
Another police vehicle was alerted to offer back-up before Sanders was eventually taken to a station.
Sanders, 36, of Devon Street, Hetton, has now admitted two counts of assaulting a police officer on July 4 last year and one charge of being drunk and disorderly on the same date.
His victims were initially called to the country park at around 7.25pm following complaints that Sanders had been acting aggressively.
The officers found him slumped on the bench with the bottle of whisky at his side.
They arrested him after he started shouting and swearing when they asked him how he was.
The court jailed Sanders for 12 weeks for each of the attacks after judging them to be serious offences because one officer was driving and the other was bitten during the ongoing pandemic.
Sanders was also ordered to pay the officers £200 compensation each and will begin paying the debt at a rate of £20 per month from May.
No separate penalty was imposed by the court for the drunk and disorderly charge.