WREXHAM man Harry Bernard Jones was involved in an affray where he hurled racist abuse while he had a knife and smashed all the windows in his council flat with a hammer.

Jones, 38, of Cefn Dre in Caia Park, who suggested he was a Nazi, was on bail for assaulting a police officer.

He has now been jailed for a year at Mold Crown Court but a judge said if he had been properly charged then the sentence would have been longer.

Jones admitted assaulting a police officer on November 17 – four days after a new act on assaulting emergency workers had been introduced.

Judge Rhys Rowlands said that doubled the available sentence for assaulting police officers and others.

But Jones was fortunate to have been charged under the old act because of an error either within the police or the Crown Prosecution Service, he said.

The judge said he suspected the local Police Federation would want to know why he had not been charged under the new act with doubled the available sentence.

After a break barrister Ryan Rothwell, prosecuting, said the initial error occurred when the postal requisition was sent out by the police.

The case had been reviewed by a CPS lawyer who was alive to the issue but misread the date and the charge was not therefore changed.

Jones admitted assaulting a police officer, damaging property and a racially aggravated affray.

Mr Rothwell said police were called to Wrexham town centre at 11.30pm. They arrested Jones who was described as aggressive and confrontational with door staff.

He was "cleared intoxicated" and was handcuffed but Jones turned and lunged back at one of the officers and tried to headbutt him to the face.

The officer was able to move quickly and was not hurt.

Jones was taken to the ground and restrained and was removed from the scene by four officers.

Interviewed, he denied being involved and was bailed pending trial.

But in the afternoon on March 18 Jones was heard shouting from his flat at group outside including a young woman, an older woman and a man in a wheelchair.

He was seen to leave his flat with a red-handled knife but then returned saying "they are going to kill me" and smashed all four windows involving 12 panes with a hammer at his home.

A number of people heard him shout racial abuse at the group and he also referred in a derogatory way to the man in the wheelchair.

Police arrived as Jones and the man in the wheelchair began squaring up to each other.

Jones, who had previous convictions for 27 offences, was said by Henry Hills, defending, to be a man who lived in a state of mental turmoil and desperation much of the time.

The affray arose from a dispute with neighbours, he said.

A letter from his mother said he had been tormented by drug addicts in the neighbourhood.

That day his emotions and feelings of vulnerability got the better of him but he appreciated that was no excuse.

"He does understand that he crossed boundaries which he should not have done," said Mr Hills.

Judge Rowlands said he had assaulted a police officer when he tried to use his head as a weapon.

If he had connected then he could have caused quite serious injury.

Then while on bail he shouted insults of a racist character and also used a derogatory term towards a disabled man in a wheelchair.

His words were deeply unsettling and included the suggestion that he was a Nazi.

He had been drinking, had a knife which he was seen to take towards the street in temper and then returned when he caused "mindless damage" to his council flat.

Jones, the judge said, had a previous conviction for a racially aggravated harassment last year.

He had mental health difficulties but he was making it worse by drinking too much.