Student spat in police officer's eyes at Mansfield college for disabled people

Police were called to Portland College, Harlow Wood, after Damien Jones threw a bean bag at a member of staff at 5pm on March 1, prosecutor Marie Stace said.

Officers found the 18-year-old lying on the floor and shouting: "Just take me to prison. I have made my mind up. I want to be in prison."

He refused to get up and became aggressive, Ms Stace said, and the officer called for back-up because Jones was being ‘hostile’.

Jones was eventually persuaded to calm down and get into his dad's car, but he began banging on the windows and punching the car horn.

When one officer got into the front seat to talk to him, he spat in his eyes.

Vicky Clarson, mitigating, said it was a ‘short lived but unpleasant incident’, but it ‘wasn't a pleasant experience for him at the police station’.

He became ‘distressed’, she said, when officers warned they would remove his hair for a DNA test if he didn't provide a sample of his own accord.

Ms Clarson said he was diagnosed with autism, ADHD and ‘significant challenging behaviour issues’, but he later expressed remorse.

"It's a pity it couldn't be diverted by a caution or restorative justice," she added.

Jones, 18, of Lindley Street, Newthorpe, pleaded guilty to assaulting an emergency worker when he appeared at Nottingham Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday.

He was given a six-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay £200 compensation, with £85 costs and a £20 victim surcharge.

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