Man jailed for throttling policeman

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A Greymouth man who tried to throttle a policeman and held a female constable on the ground by her ponytail has been jailed for nine months.

Logan Thomas Stanton, 20, yesterday admitted assaulting the constables and other charges of unlawful entry and threatening behaviour when he appeared in the Greymouth District Court.

"Police should be respected, they don't deserve to be punched and kicked, that's not what they signed up for," Judge David Saunders said.

"We rely heavily on the boys in blue at times of trouble, they are the ones who put their lives at risk and they are the ones who have to scrape the mess off the roads after car crashes; they deserve the protection of the courts."

Stanton was at a party in Blaketown, when someone discovered that one of the cars outside had been scratched. The damage had actually been done by a woman at the party but several men, including Stanton, stormed over to the next door house, kicking in a door and forcing their way inside, yelling and screaming, demanding to know who had caused the damage.

Police were called and soon arrived at the party, where Stanton blocked the way of one constable, saying: "I'm going to be your new friend and follow you around".

The constable arrested one of the other men and was leading him from the party when Stanton grabbed the policeman by the throat and started to squeeze it.

As the constable tried to break his grip Stanton took one hand from his throat and struck him several times in the face. The other man joined in and punched the officer, until a female constable tackled Stanton and wrestled with him on the ground. Stanton held her down by the hair until a third constable intervened.

In explanation, Stanton said he was really drunk and did not know what he was doing.

Lawyer George Linder asked that Stanton be allowed to serve a home detention sentence at his mother's address but the judge would not allow it.

"Parliament wants us to protect police officers from violent attacks. This was not just a bit of a shove as they were heading to the patrol car, it was serious," the judge said.

- The Greymouth Star