Officer punched taking drunk to cell

A Spalding man punched a police officer as he was being taken to a cell after being arrested for being drunk and disorderly, a court has heard.

Matthew Preece, 45, of The Meadows, who admitted the offences, had been arrested in West Street at 5pm on October 7 after officers found him slumped against a wall and magistrates heard how he struggled as he was being taken to a cell, punching an officer in the jaw and causing his radio to fall to the floor.

Helen Coney, mitigating, said Preece had problems with alcohol and on this day had not drunk anything for four months when he decided to go into Boston and then this had happened.

She said he had now moved in with his parents who had a ‘dry’ house.

The magistrates heard that Preece had been subject to two community orders, including an alcohol treatment order, but they told him that he ‘obviously had an alcohol problem’.

They revoked the existing community order and imposed a new one for a year with 10 rehabilitation days and another six month alcohol treatment order.

He was also ordered to pay £175 in costs and charges.

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