A man punched a kebab shop worker in the face and threatened staff with a knife before launching a vile racist tirade against the police officer who arrested him.
Carlo Jones called the constable a "dirty P**i" and told him to "get back to your own country" during the late night outburst. At the time of the offending the 23-year-old was subject to a community order for damaging a string of parked cars and threatening to cut out the tongue of a witness.
Georgia Donohue, prosecuting, told Swansea Crown Court that at around 11.30pm on March 20 this year the defendant went into a kebab and pizza takeaway on Station Road in Llanelli town centre demanding to see the owner. When he was told the boss was away he tried to force his way into the office at the rear of the premises - as staff struggled to keep him out he punched one of them in the face and tried to gouge his eye. The court heard Jones became increasingly irate and agitated and starting kicking the door to the office and punching the wall before hurling a charity box to the floor.
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The prosecutor said Jones was eventually escorted out of the shop but returned some 20 minutes later and began banging the counter and demanding food. Staff tried to reason with him but he shouted and swore at them then pushed his way behind the counter and picked up a knife from beside the grill. The court heard he pointed the weapon at staff and shouted: "Are you going to give me food?" In an attempt to placate him staff said he could have whatever he wanted if he returned to the customer-side of the counter.
The court heard that by now 999 calls had been made to the police, and officers were soon on the scene. Jones was arrested and placed in he cage in the back of their vehicle but he began swearing at and threatening officers, and repeatedly spitting. Miss Donohue said during the journey to the police station Jones made several racial slurs to the Asian officer who had arrested him before saying "f*** Allah".
The court heard the kebab shop staff had declined to provide victim impact statements but the police officer who was racially abused said he found the experience deeply upsetting. The police vehicle which Jones spat in had to be professional cleaned.
Carlo Jones, of Sandy Road, Llanelli, had previously pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm, two counts of criminal damage, three counts of public disorder, and to racially aggravated harassment when he appeared in the dock for sentencing. He has 11 previous convictions for 31 offences including multiple public order and criminal damage matters, assaults by beating, and possession of cannabis. At the time of the kebab shop incident the defendant was subject to a community order imposed for seven counts of criminal damage and a public order offence - this offending had seen him smashing the wing mirrors off a string of parked cars in Llanelli town centre, damaging garden fences, threatening to cut out the tongue of a witness, and then damaging a police vehicle.
Matt Murphy, for Jones, said the defendant was keen to stress that the language used towards the officer and the views expressed "are not the views he upholds in his day to day life" - he said his client wanted the court to know he has a Polish partner, Muslim friends, and people of African descent in his family. He said Jones had taken a quantity of street Valium tablets - a substance which was "prevalent" in Llanelli - on the night in question after the death to his father some three months earlier following a period of abstinence from the drug. The advocate said the community mental health team had identified a potential borderline personality disorder in his client, and that was a diagnosis which he "struggles to accept".
Judge Christopher Vosper KC described Jones' behaviour on the night in question as "bizarre" and "disgraceful" and said while he did not minimise the difficult upbringing the defendant had experienced he said it was clear from the reports he had read that Jones had not yet reached the level of maturity necessary to face the issues in his life. The judge said Jones had not complied with community orders in the past and said he could see no purpose in passing a sentence with which the defendant would not engage.
With a one third discount for his guilty pleas Jones was sentenced to 14 months in prison, and the judge revoked the community order Jones had breached and re-sentenced him to two months in prison for those matters to run consecutively making an overall sentence of 16 months in prison. Jones will serve up to half that period in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community.
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