Officers came to the conclusion that Jamie Patterson-Smith, a visitor from Sheffield, who had only arrived in the island that day, was suffering a mental health crisis and took him to hospital, where he continued to behave erratically and made derogatory remarks about ethnic groups.
Because of his continuing behaviour and comments, the officers arrested him, but when he was released by medical staff and being escorted to the police vehicle he spat at one of them, although this missed, and carried on kicking out and making threats to spit.
He challenged them to take the handcuffs off and made comments that they took to mean he was threatening to fight them.
Patterson-Smith, 25, who appeared in the Magistrate’s Court from custody, admitted making threats of violence to the officers, resisting them and assaulting two of them, one by spitting.
Advocate Samuel Steel, defending, said that despite his client effectively being overcharged, he had admitted all of the offences.
He had asked the advocate to convey his real remorse for his actions.
He was ashamed at what he had done and written a letter of apology to the court. He had pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity.
This had been drunken behaviour and he did not really hold the views that he had expressed when shouting. He had ADHD, depression and anxiety, which affected his decision-making, emotion regulation and ability to assess risk.
This had been his first holiday in many years and a rare taste of freedom and he had been drinking and taking cannabis. Up to this point he had been making good progress in his life, taking health and safety qualifications ahead of going into construction work and starting to rebuild relationships with his family.
His partner was expecting their first child in January and he wanted to go back to the UK where he was determined to be a present father, Advocate Steel said.
Judge Marc Davies said that he could not pretend that the defendant’s behaviour had been entirely out of character but even though there were previous offences, these were of a different nature.
He was satisfied, based on the probation report, that the comments made by Patterson-Smith had been the drink and drugs talking, and were not his genuine views.
The judge said he was prepared to take what some might say was an unusual step and impose a suspended sentence, but he warned that the defendant would be taking this to the UK with him and if he got in trouble again he would be returned to Guernsey and be before the court again.
For the threats, Patterson-Smith was sentenced to three months in prison, plus two months each for the assaults on officers and one month for resisting arrest. The assault and resisting arrest offences were concurrent to each other but consecutive to the other matter, making a total of five months
in prison, which was suspended for 18 months.
