A drunk mechanical engineer spat directly into a police officer’s eye in Aberdeen city centre and bragged of being a “trained boxer”.
Officers tried to speak to Aaron Graham as he was seen running away from the scene of a disturbance but were met with a barrage of verbal and physical abuse.
The 26-year-old repeatedly told the police to “f*** off” and pushed one of the officers away.
And things quickly escalated, with Graham spitting, struggling and making a homophobic comment.
‘He was angry, he was drunk’
Fiscal depute Dylan Middleton told Aberdeen Sheriff Court police received a call regarding an ongoing disturbance on Union Street at 12.30am on June 26 2022.
Officers saw Graham “hastily making off from the disturbance” on Summer Street and, unsure of his involvement, approached him on foot.
Graham was “immediately hostile”, telling the officers to “f*** off” and pushing one to the chest.
Mr Middleton said: “Efforts were then made to restrain the accused, who started aggressively resisting, lashing out wildly with his arms.”
A third officer then came to assist and they managed to restrain Graham to the ground where he was handcuffed and arrested.
Mr Middleton went on: “While being restrained, the accused repeatedly made threats to bite and kill the officers whilst repeatedly referencing the fact he was a trained boxer.”
He also repeatedly referred to one of the constables as a “f****** p***”, which was taken to be homophobic in nature.
Police have a ‘tough enough job’
While in a seated position, Graham then “spat directly in the face” of one of the officers, causing the saliva to enter his left eye.
Further officers then attended and a spit hood was applied to Graham, his legs were restrained with Velcro straps, and he was placed in a police van.
Graham, of Castleview Avenue, Kintore, pled guilty to assault and behaving in a threatening or abusive manner.
Defence agent Michael Burnett said his client, unless told he was under arrest, would initially have been entitled to walk away from the officers, but that he had crossed a line by pushing one of them.
He added: “He was angry, he was drunk. It’s a regrettable incident.”
Sheriff Morag McLaughlin ordered Graham to complete 225 hours of unpaid work, warning him that police have a “tough enough job” without having to deal with such behaviour.
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