A 21-year-old man drunkenly threatened to slit police officers’ throats before assaulting one during a struggle in Northwich .

Joshua Stanton, of Gaskell Rise in Longridge, Knutsford, was given a 12-month community order and ordered to complete 250 hours’ unpaid work at Chester Magistrates Court on Monday (December 21), after earlier pleading guilty to being drunk and disorderly in a public place and assaulting a constable in the execution of their duty.

The court heard that Stanton had spent Halloween night drinking with his dad at Rudheath Social Club.

Shortly before 1am on November 1, police received a report of a suspicious man in a garden on Middlewich Road.

Verbally abusive

Carolyn Viviani, prosecuting, said officers arrived to find a male and a female watching Stanton, who was being verbally abusive.

The female was holding a brush and telling him to stay away.

After being handcuffed and escorted from the garden, Stanton called the officers ‘pigs’ and said ‘I will slit your throat’.

Mrs Viviani told the magistrates a van was requested after Stanton threatened to kick the windows of the police car.

It was while he was being transferred to the van that he made repeated attempts to headbutt several officers.

He had to be restrained on the floor, during which one officer sustained a 1cm cut to his hand and experienced pins and needles in his wrist.

Stanton was taken to Middlewich Custody Suite, where he told police he could remember very little of what happened and considered himself to score 10 on a scale of drunkenness of one to 10.

Emma Hassall, defending, said: “He was very honest in that interview.

“He confirmed that his actions were reckless.

“He is ashamed and disappointed by his behaviour.”

Ms Hassall explained that Stanton lost his job the week before the incident and felt he could not provide for his family.

She said Stanton has secured full-time employment again, which he is ‘very proud of’.

Magistrates ordered him to pay £85 towards the costs of the prosecution, a £150 criminal courts charge, a victim surcharge of £60 and £200 in compensation to the injured police officer.