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THREE prison officers had to tackle a defendant who started punching a pane of glass when he was told he was being jailed.
Lewis Buckley, 27, appeared before Colchester Magistrates’ Court after he admitted one charge each of theft and failing to comply with notification requirements for sex offenders.
The court heard Buckley failed to report to a police station after he was released from HMP Chelmsford earlier this year having served a 12-week prison term for exposure.
Stuart Cowen, prosecuting, said: “This is his fifth such offence which would aggravate the matter further."
Buckley, of no fixed abode, Colchester, also stole £150 of clothes from H&M in May and was arrested after he was reported by a member of the public.
The hearing had to be adjourned briefly for a cleaner to sanitise the dock after Buckley was seen spitting into an air vent.
Referring to a pre-sentence report prepared by the probation service, Hamza Adesanu said in mitigation: “There is the usual stuff – mental health concerns, school being patchy, use of drugs and use of alcohol, and homelessness.
“He was released from custody and was overwhelmed by freedom and didn’t report to the police station.
“He has been homeless for a number of years – he has done well to be convicted as lightly as he has.
“He has been on the streets from place to place – Clacton, Colchester – and still manages to report, in the main, to a police station.”
He added: “His convictions have created a vicious cycle where work is difficult to obtain, housing is difficult to obtain – it is difficult to describe his life as anything but chaotic.”
When the bench retired to consider their sentence, Buckley launched a verbal tirade at the press bench.
He said: “You should feel ashamed sitting there. You’re a cretin – your family would be ashamed of you.”
Magistrates jailed Buckley for eight months for failing to comply with notification requirements and one month consecutive for theft from a shop.
Buckley constantly shouted at the magistrates' bench while the chair Robert Cook explained how they had reached their sentence.
After refusing to go to the cells, three dock officers wrestled Buckley to the ground before the legal adviser cleared the court.