A WREXHAM man who spat in the face of a PC was saved from jail because police were too long bringing the case.

Instead Steven Davies, 41, of Alexandra Road was given a year’s prison sentence suspended for a year. He must for 26 weeks obey a tagged curfew between 5pm and 6am.

At Llandudno court on Wednesday, District Judge Gwyn Jones ordered him to pay £250 compensation to PC Daniel Brown, whom he spat at, and £150 to PC Michael Carter who was punched in the face.

Davies pleaded guilty to assaulting the two officers, emergency workers, on December 20 last year, and to threatening behaviour. Costs of £213 were imposed.

District Judge Jones said the defendant’s behaviour in the Tesco store in Crescent Road was wholly improper and had caused great trauma to police, who had been called in the midst of a pandemic.

Evidence was clear from the outset and police should have brought the case to court at the time. Why this had not happened “cannot be explained.”

He added: “North Wales Police have to ask themselves why there has been such a delay. It would appear to me that the evidence was there.”

The district judge told Davies: “Had this matter come before me in January you know what the sentence would be.” However he had pleaded guilty immediately, had found somewhere to live and dealt with demons which were troubling him. Contrition had been shown and there was “light at the end of the tunnel.”

Solicitor Euros Jones, defending, agreed that Davies had been kept in limbo. At the time he was troubled.

The court had been told that a spit guard had to be used and limb restraints were deployed during the rumpus in Tesco.

Prosecutor Sara Worland said police had to seal off an area so that customers were not upset. He was confrontational to the police, “goading them and gesturing with his arms.”

Constable Brown, who was spat at close to the eye, said in an impact statement that being spat at put not only himself but his family at risk during the Covid pandemic and meant a wait to see whether symptoms developed.

“Being spat at is a horrible way of being assaulted,” he remarked. “I do not go to work to be assaulted.”