A wanted man knocked out a police officer who found him hiding in a cupboard.
Connor Mackay, 23, used a bottle of whisky to hit the policeman so hard in the face that one of his victim’s front teeth was pushed backwards.
The impact knocked the officer momentarily unconscious and left him bleeding from the nose and mouth.
Fiscal depute Robert Weir told Inverness Sheriff Court that the incident took place just before 4am on January 14 of this year when officers were called to a disturbance in Carnac Crescent, Inverness.
He said: “Police were allowed access to the locus and saw the now accused Connor Mackay attempt to climb out of the rear window. Upon seeing them the accused left the window and hid in a cupboard.”
One officer found Mackay in the cupboard, drinking from a glass bottle of whisky.
He told Mackay that he was wanted in respect to an arrest warrant for a separate matter, to which Mackay initially remained “calm”.
“The accused then stood up to leave the cupboard and, as he did so, he swung a glass bottle at the police witness striking him to the face,” Mr Weir said.
Bottle blow knocked out police officer
The court heard that the blow left the officer momentarily unconscious and bleeding from the mouth and nose.
He stumbled back and Mackay was restrained by other officers before an ambulance was called.
Paramedics found that the officer had a laceration to the inside of his mouth and swelling to the area.
The officer required a week off work and needed an emergency dental appointment as a front tooth had been displaced by the blow, leaving him with pain while eating for four or five weeks after the incident.
Mackay appeared via videolink to admit a charge of assaulting an officer in relation to the incident, which took place while he was flouting a court-imposed curfew designed to keep him at home between 7pm and 7am.
He also admitted a second charge of assaulting an officer and threatening behaviour relating to an incident on May 19 of this year.
Connor Mackay spat in the face of an officer
On this occasion, officers had arrested Mackay on Academy Street, Inverness, in relation to a separate matter.
On being arrested the accused has become aggressive towards officers shouting at them, calling them c***s and making threats, Mr Weir told the court, adding that Mackay was then restrained and handcuffed.
“On being placed in handcuffs the accused had drawn up spit, heard by officers, and thereafter spat in the face of a police witness directly striking him in his eye and mouth.”
Mackay was restrained to the ground and a spit hood was applied. He was taken to Burnett Road Police Station but during the journey he further threatened an officer, telling him: “Just wait until I come out of this cage, you will get it.”
He called the officer a slur and also put on an accent in a way that the officer perceived to be racist after Mackay called him a Polish p****.
Solicitor Marc Dickson, for Mackay, who was described as a prisoner in Inverness, said his client had very little recollection of the incident.
He said that during the Carnac Crescent incident, Mackay had been drinking, as observed by officers, and was “heavily intoxicated”.
Mr Dickson explained that his client, who was diagnosed with ADHD and a disorder that contributed to obstructive personality, had been unmedicated at the time of the crimes.
Mr Dickson said his client, who has also struggled with drug addiction, wished genuinely to apologise for his behaviour toward the officers and had written them letters to that effect.
‘Disgusting and unacceptable’
Handing down a 20-month prison sentence, Sheriff Sara Matheson told Mackay: “Members of the public should understand that assault on police officers will be viewed seriously by the court.
“The court continues to see a number of people who cough and spit on police officers.
“Your conduct involved two serious matters and involved a spitting offence where spittle landed in a police officer’s eye and mouth.
“This conduct is disgusting and unacceptable.”
