A Kendal man who spat at, grabbed and kicked a police constable after he was arrested has been given an immediate eight-month prison sentence.
Heavily convicted Scott Graham, 36, was spotted outside the town police station at around 2am on September 21. He was looking into vehicles and believed to be under the influence, Carlisle Crown Court heard today.
Officers went to investigate. They found Graham in a doorway in an agitated state and he admitted to having a knife in his pocket which, he said, was for his own protection.
A blade was recovered, Graham was arrested and at that point he became more abusive, threatening violence.
In custody, as he vowed to spit at officers, attempts were made to apply a hood aimed at preventing such conduct. Graham resisted, biting down on the hood.
And, when one officer tried to free it, Graham spat directly in his face before grabbing the officer’s arm, digging in his nails, and kicking him forcefully to the shin.
Graham, of Ann Street, Kendal, later admitted assaulting an emergency worker and illegal possession of a blade in public.
The court heard he had 57 convictions for 115 past offences on his record.
Kim Whittlestone, mitigating, said Graham had been diagnosed with a very rare genetic condition which had caused behavioural and learning difficulties.
A psychiatrist who had assessed and diagnosed Graham indicated that past behavioural problems exhibited by him could be attributable to the condition.
But Judge Barker imposed an immediate jail term, noting that Graham had four past offences on his record for blade possession, and 10 for assaults on emergency workers and threatening behaviour.
“I have a lot of sympathy for you, Scott Graham,” said the judge. “Those that are both with a condition that affects the way that they behave should be given sympathy.
“But it is not a ‘get out of jail free’ card so you can use it to explain criminal behaviour. The difficulty here is that the diagnosis was as long ago as 2021 and here you are still, in 2024, behaving like this.”
