An aggressive drunk who punched two innocent strangers in Halifax town centre and bit a police officer’s leg when he was in custody five months later has been jailed by a judge.
Recorder Anthony Hawks warned 21-year-old Rastrick man Tyler Curran that he faced serving longer and longer in prison if he continued his violent behaviour.
Bradford Crown Court heard that Curran, of Rosemary Close, had already amassed nearly 50 offences on his record and in March he was given a chance when a judge imposed a nine-month suspended sentence for a previous assault on his own mother.
But just a few weeks later Curran was out in the Northgate area of Halifax when he attacked two men who were said to be strangers to him.
Prosecutor Emma Downing described how Curran, who was heavily intoxicated, began shouting abuse at one man before punching him in the face and a few minutes later he launched a more serious assault on a second member of the public who needed 12 stitches in a cut above his left eye after being repeatedly punched by the defendant.
Police arrived on the scene and arrested Curran who said he couldn’t remember the incidents because of the alcohol he had drunk.
Miss Downing said Curran was given bail, but in September he was arrested over another matter and while he was at the police station he became abusive when he was told he couldn’t make a phone call.
The court heard that Curran was drunk again and as officers tried to get him into his cell he bit a sergeant on the leg.
Having been released on bail again Curran then turned up a family’s Greetland home and smashed two windows after he was told to leave the property.
When the householder drove round the area looking for Curran he threw a can of lager at his Mitsubishi Shogun vehicle causing a crack to the windscreen.
Curran, who took part in the hearing via a video link to HMP Leeds where he is remanded, pleaded guilty earlier this month to a series of offences including assault, assaulting a police officer and criminal damage.
Recorder Hawks was told that Curran had completed an alcohol treatment requirement as part of his suspended prison sentence, but he said it was difficult to see what good it had done the defendant given the circumstances of his latest offending.
The judge said biting the officer was a disgusting thing to do and Curran had to start thinking about the consequences of his behaviour.
In addition to the 22-month jail sentence Recorder Hawks also imposed an indefinite restraining order which bans Curran from contacting the Greetland family or going to their home.
