A HEREFORD roofer unleashed a "prolonged and disgraceful" attack on police and threatened to kill pubgoers after drinking alcohol and taking drugs, with one officer bitten on the face, a court has heard.

Jay John Paul Kavanagh, 22, had been drinking in the Golden Fleece pub in St Owen's Street, Hereford, when an argument started.

He "ripped" off his t-shirt and hurled verbal abuse at the landlord and customers, prosecution barrister Alison Scott-Jones told Worcester Crown Court.

He shouted "I'll f***ing kill you all" as he picked up a cider bottle as if to use it as a weapon, before squaring up to landlord Tobias Wood as he tried to make him leave the pub.

Kavanagh, of Commercial Road, then went to headbutt a customer before punching Mr Wood in the chest and damaging his mobile phone, Ms Scott-Jones told the court on Friday (July 9).

As customers tried to help persuade Kavanagh to leave, he picked up a chair and started swinging it around, shouting: "I'm going to smash you all up."

He punched Gary Lleweyn-Brown, a customer at the Golden Fleece, twice in the face which broke his glasses. As he was pulled away, Mr Lleweyn-Brown was hit twice in the ribs.

Ms Scott-Jones said police arrived as Kavanagh was escorted out of the pub, but the two officers were unable to calm him down. They were both punched as Kavanagh ran off into an unlit alleyway.

He then stopped and bit PC Price on the face, making it bleed, and PC Chesterton on the arm.

Despite being restrained, Kavanagh still didn't calm down, breaking a light in the back of the police van after the outburst on July 17, 2020.

Officers were then forced to take him to hospital to be sedated, and once back at the police station, two wraps of cocaine worth around £35 were found in his sock.

Ms Scott-Jones said he answered "no comment" to a lot of questions in the police interview, but he did express remorse and admitted he had a problem with alcohol.

He said he was "bang out of order" when shown CCTV footage from inside the pub, and he had drunk alcohol and taken class A drugs ketamine and cocaine.

She said Kavanagh, who works for a roofing company, had four previous convictions for possession of drugs and violence.

Defence barrister Giles Nelson said he couldn't offer much mitigation as Kavanagh "readily accepted" he was heavily intoxicated and didn't really remember the evening, but was remorseful when interviewed by the police.

He said Kavanagh's loss of control was serious, but there were no significant injuries, and a pre-sentence report showed he had a "difficult and troubled childhood" and more recently "abused alcohol".

Recorder Martin Butterworth said it was a "prolonged and disgraceful demonstration of violence" by someone who was drunk and "refused to calm down".

The reasons for the outburst were not clear, he said, but the comprehensive pre-sentence report highlighted his troubled childhood where he witnessed violence.

He was "just persuaded" by the report and Mr Nelson's mitigation that a prison sentence could be suspended.

After pleading guilty to 10 offences, including five counts of assault, three of criminal damage, and one each of possession of a class A drug and using threatening language, he was sentenced to total of 58 weeks in prison, suspended for two years.

Kavanagh must also carry out 40 rehabilitation activity requirement days, 180 hours of unpaid work and obey an electronically monitored curfew between 7pm and 6am for six months.

He was also told to pay £40 compensation to Mr Lleweyn-Brown for his broken glasses and £250 to PC Price, as well as a court surcharge.