A MAN who assaulted a policeman before trying to kick a nurse in the face has been jailed for 18 weeks.

David Regan had drunk more than a bottle of vodka and became aggressive and abusive while undergoing treatment at Darlington Memorial Hospital, on September 4, after falling off a wall.

The 47-year-old, who was too drunk to walk, kicked a police officer in the shin as he helped him to the toilet before screaming abuse at a nurse and aiming a kick at her head – instead hitting her on the shoulder.

Jailing him for 18 weeks at Darlington Magistrates’ Court, District Judge Adrian Lower said public servants did a difficult job and looked to the courts to send a tough message that violence, abuse and assaults would not be tolerated.

The court heard that Regan, of Greenbank Road, Darlington, had 26 convictions for violence in the past 19 years.

Jon Garside, prosecuting, said the police officer suffered severe swelling to his shin after the kick, while the nurse had difficulty using her arm after the shoulder injury.

He said: “The abuse from the defendant against hospital staff and police was well within the hearing of other patients. The nurse who was injured said she did not expect patients who she was trying to help to behave in such a manner.”

Emma Richards, mitigating, said Regan was extremely sorry for his actions and had expressed remorse for the fact that he had attacked two people trying to help him.

“He fully accepts that anger management is something he needs.”

Judge Lower sentenced Regan to 12 weeks imprisonment for the assault on the police officer and 18 weeks imprisonment for the assault on the nurse, to run concurrently.

He said: “I accept that you are sorry for what you have done. But you chose to put yourself in a state where you were not in a position to control the way you were behaving.

“Police officers have a difficult enough job to do as it is.

If police have trouble, so do nurses working in A&E departments.

They don’t expect to put up with people they are trying to help assaulting them.”