A Castletown man has been jailed for 26 weeks by a magistrates’ court after vandalising two police cars and punching a police officer.

Christopher David Lunt, of Malew Street, must also serve an additional nine weeks in prison as he is in breach of conditions of an early release from a previous sentence.

Lunt, who is 22, smashed the windscreens of two police cars and told police: ’I hate you, you’re all scum,’ after being arrested.

Prosecutor James Robinson told the court how, on March 15, a witness saw Lunt walking between two police vehicles with a large brown object in his hand.

The witness then saw that one of the vehicles had a smashed windscreen and called the police.

When police arrived they found that two vehicles both had the windscreens smashed and a large rock was on the bonnet of one of the vehicles.

The witness pointed out Lunt, who was stood near the quay. When he saw police he started to run and a police officer pursued him.

Lunt ran to the Ramsey Grammar School car park and then on to the beach. He was caught by the police officer and swung a punch described as a ’haymaker’.

The punch hit the officer on the back of the head but he managed to grab Lunt, putting him to the ground.

Police eventually had to use Pava spray to subdue him and he was arrested and taken to police headquarters.

In a police interview Lunt admitted the vandalism saying: ’I did smash up the police vehicles. I hate you, you’re all scum.’

The court heard that Lunt had been released early from a previous sentence, on licence until May 2017.

Defending him in court advocate Andrew Marshall said: ’It was not a pre-meditated act. Although it doesn’t excuse it, but in reality, it was minor damage to the cars which can be easily rectified.

’The assault was a single punch when he was caught. There were no injuries and it was not a pre-meditated attack. It was very much a spontaneous reaction. He admits he’s developed a dislike of police, which is exacerbated when he is intoxicated. He believes police are targeting him and have done so throughout his life.

’He has been diagnosed with autism which might explain why he finds it hard to change his mindset.

’The probation report refers to a medical report which confirms the autism diagnosis, which has unfortunately been exacerbated by drug and alcohol addiction from an early age.’

Magistrates sentenced Lunt to 12 weeks custody for each of two property damage charges, to run concurrently with each other and 14 weeks for the police assault, to run consecutively.