SENTENCE on a man for cultivating cannabis and assaulting a police woman has been delayed as he is said to be subject to home isolation.

Although defendant Allan Bewley arrived at Durham Crown Court for the sentencing hearing, having admitted charges of producing a controlled drug and assaulting an emergency worker before magistrates’ court last month, his lawyer, Michele Turner, told the court she suggested he should remain outside the building, as a precaution.

She said the 39-year-old defendant lives at home in Wolsingham with an “at risk” family member, and, in the current climate, is, therefore, self isolating.

Miss Turner asked Recorder Chris Knox to delay the sentencing hearing for at least a fortnight, in the circumstances.

Recorder Knox agreed and granted the defendant bail pending the re-listed sentencing hearing, on Friday April 3.

The offences of production of 52 cannabis plants in a back bedroom at his home, in Upper Town, and assaulting an emergency worker, a police woman investigating the grow, both took place at that address on March 27, last year.