A MAN shouted insults at disabled people then smashed a police car window, a court heard.
Lexus Wakefield, 28, was unable to attend his trial yesterday, after he was excluded from the court by security for disruptive behaviour.
But magistrates sitting at Huddersfield proceeded in his absence and found him guilty of using threatening, abusive or insulting words with behaviour likely to cause harassment alarm or distress.
The court was told the incident happened in Lord Street when support worker Dean Pye was escorting three clients, two with disabilities and one with severe learning difficulties.
Mr Pye, who gave evidence in court, said: “We were waiting to catch the free bus from Lord Street when we were approached by a man asking for money.
“I told him I didn’t have any money.
“He got quite irate. He kept going on about the fact that I wouldn’t give him any money.
“He then shouted, xxxxxxx retards.”
The court heard how one of the men, who suffers from Down Syndrome, got very distressed and the group sought safety at the nearby Huddersfield Methodist Mission.
Police arrived and Wakefield, of Richmond Flats, was arrested, handcuffed and escorted to the back of an marked Astra police car.
But while he was in the car he used his feet to smash the glass of a window.
Wakefield failed to admit the offence on interview and told police he had not caused the window to break but that a brick had been thrown at the window and he had put his feet up to protect himself because his hands were handcuffed.
Magistrates found Wakefield guilty in his absence and issued a warrant for his arrest.
The case will be joined with other court matters including five alleged breaches of ASBOs not to enter Huddersfield town centre.
