Crown court for Sutton man who spat at cop and smashed windscreen with golf club

Shaun Burton was laughing and joking one minute, then making threats the next, while he was handcuffed outside his home on August 23, said prosecutor Andrew Conboy.

“I wouldn’t spit at you, that's pig ignorant,” he said before kicking an officer in the lower part of left leg.

When he was pushed against a wall he spat in the officer’s face. He turned his head as though he was going to spit again and the officer struck him in the face.

Burton, aged 56, later accepted he shouldn’t have done it and agreed that people at work don’t deserve to be assaulted, said Mr Conboy.

The officer said it was “disgusting and unnecessary.”

The court heard the offence put Burton in breach of a four month prison sentence, suspended for one year, which was imposed for a non-dwelling burglary in November 2022.

Treve Lander, mitigating, said. “This was part of an horrendous night for him. He was the victim of an assault. He was thumped in the jaw by someone behind him.

“He didn’t have any hospital treatment and this put him in a bad mood.”

Mr Lander said Burton has apologised to the owner of the car and offered to pay for the damage.

Burton, of Jephson Road, admitted assaulting an emergency worker, when he appeared at Mansfield Magistrates Court, on Wednesday.

He was committed to Nottingham Crown Court for sentence on unconditional bail on October 18.