Man, 25, jailed after biting police officer in club-street arrest

A MAN with a “dreadful” record of attacking police officers has been jailed after biting a police officer.

Leroy Parry, 25, was struggling with five policemen in Swansea’s Wind Street when he sank his teeth into the arm of one of the officers.

Parry was due to appear at Swansea Magistrates’ Court via videolink from prison on Tuesday morning to face a charge of assaulting a PC and criminal damage and an unrelated public order matter, but he refused to leave his prison cell.

District judge Neale Thomas said he would take Parry’s non-appearance as a not-guilty plea, and he put matters back until later in the day. The trial went ahead without him. Luke Lambourne, prosecuting, said officers on patrol in Wind Street on the night of April 6 saw Parry in the lane next to the Griffin pub.

Knowing that Parry was wanted for recall to prison for breaching the terms of his post-custodial licence, they went to arrest him.

The prosecutor said Parry resisted attempts to detain him.

Mr Davies, for Parry, said it was his client’s position that the events described had not happened.

The district judge said he found the Wind Street case against the defendant proved in his absence.

Parry was found not guilty of the public order offence. He received 22 weeks in prison for the assault and 12 weeks for the criminal damage, to run concurrently.