A man who head-butted a police officer that stopped him from shoplifting has been jailed.
Jamie Patterson, 34, of Thurtle Road, Hackney, left a City of London Police officer with a cut above his right eyebrow and needing hospital treatment in October.
At Inner London Crown Court he was sentenced to 23 weeks in prison for his actions.
It was described in court how Patterson was spotted shortly after 11am on 30 October by an officer inside a Gracechurch Street clothes shop putting items worth £219 into a carrier bag and leaving the store without making any attempt to pay.
Patterson (inset) ran off but was detained by the officer in a nearby street and brought back to the store. He started to struggle with the officer, head-butting him in the process.
He ran off a second time but was again detained, and arrested.
A staff member later recognised Patterson from a previous shoplifting offence at the same location 13 days earlier, when he stole various items of clothing from a display worth a total of £319. He was soon further arrested for this offence.
The officer received three stitches for the injury to his head. Patterson, meanwhile, refused to answer any questions when interviewed by detectives.
Detective Constable Syed Shah of the City of London Police said: “This was a nasty and completely unwarranted assault on a City of London Police officer who was simply doing his job and did not deserve to be attacked in this way.
“I hope Patterson will take the opportunity in custody to reflect on his actions, and that this sentence will show that we do not tolerate either theft or violence towards our officers and will do everything in our power to bring those responsible to justice.”
Patterson pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to two counts of theft and actual bodily harm (ABH). He received a 15-week sentence for ABH, to run consecutively with an eight-week suspended sentence for a previous offence, which was activated.
He also got two concurrent 14-day sentences for theft and was ordered to pay a victim surcharge, but no costs or compensation.
