A violent lout has avoided jail after he caused an off-duty police officer to break his finger by punching and hitting him with cans of lager while he stood on a wall.
Jonathon White took exception when the victim confronted his friend about him urinating in front of Monkseaton Metro Station, and White then lashed out. A court heard that the 22-year-old first climbed on top of some wheelie bins and started behaving aggressively, prompting the officer to stand on top of a 3ft wall.
White then began striking the constable with cans of Stella before punching him, which caused him to lose his balance and fall. Prosecutors said that the impact of the fall caused the victim's finger to break.
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CCTV footage showed a further confrontation between White and the victim as he attempted to arrest him before the thug tried to run off. Luckily, however, a quick-thinking witness tripped White up, which ultimately led to him falling and being detained, prosecutors said.
Now White, of Tynedale Terrace, in Benton, has narrowly avoided an immediate stint behind bars after he pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm at Newcastle Magistrates' Court. Giving him a nine-month prison sentence, suspended for 12 months, and ordering him to pay £250 compensation, District Judge Paul Currer said: "You were responsible for attacking an off-duty police officer who had cause to speak to your friend, who was urinating next to Monkseaton Metro Station.
"He had cause to speak to him because people would have had to walk through his urine on the floor. The officer did speak to him and wasn't animated. You reacted by running over to where he was. You were carrying Stella cans and you jumped up on a wheelie bin and you were standing over your friend and the officer."
The court heard that the officer got on top of a wall before White struck him to the head with the cans and punched him, causing him to fall and injure his finger. Afterwards, White still refused to leave the scene, instead entering into a "tussle" with the victim and striking him further to the head, which didn't cause any injury.
White was eventually detained when a witness tripped him over and he was arrested. The whole incident, which happened on May 20 2022, was captured on CCTV, which was watched by the district judge.
Jonathan Cousins, defending, said White had no past convictions, suffered from mental health issues and was extremely remorseful. Mr Cousins added: "He didn't know the injured party was an off-duty police officer. He didn't go out that night looking for trouble. He reacted in the wrong way to a confrontation that he wrongly perceived was a threat."
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