A MAN has been jailed for three years after he admitted assaulting five police officers in a three hour stand-off at a house in Wrexham.

Shaun Aaron Royce, 22, hurled items including a glass candle stick holder and a piece of wood out of an upstairs window at his mother's home in Connor Crescent. The candle holder struck a police officer in the face, leaving her with serious injuries to the nose, while the wood hit and injured another officer.

Prosecuting barrister Myles Wilson told Mold Crown Court that the incident happened on November 20 last year after Royce had attacked his father, falsely accusing him of having sex with his girlfriend. After attacking his father, he went to his mother's home where police went to arrest him, but he became violent and assaulted three officers in the kitchen.

Mr Wilson went on to say how PC Jamie Harris took hold of him to arrest him but was punched to the head and body. Another officer, PC Michael Carter, was knocked to the kitchen floor where he cut his leg and hand on broken cutlery and PC Jessica Nunn was punched to the mouth.

Holding a radio over his head at the top of stairs, Royce was then captor sprayed by officers, but was able to make it to an upstairs bedroom, which he refused to leave during a three hour stand-off. From the bedroom he aimed various missiles at officers, hitting and injuring two of them. PC Katherine Bancroft was struck to the nose by a glass candle holder and PC Matthew Mitchell was hit to the arm with a piece of wood.

Royce, of Lilac Way in Wrexham, received a three year sentence after he admitted two charges of assault occasioning actual bodily harm on police officers, three charges of assaulting police as emergency workers, assaulting his own father Paul Royce, and affray. To make matters worse he admitted being in breach of a suspended sentence for violence, imposed some two months earlier.

Judge Rhys Rowlands said that he initially committed a sustained assault on his own father who fell over the arm of the sofa, ended up on the floor, where he was further punched as his father pleaded with him to stop. The judge said that in reality he was dealing with three separate incidents and that the offences had been aggravated by his previous convictions.

A psychiatric report highlighted his ADHD and other health issues but the judge said that those conditions were made worse by the defendant drinking too much and taking drugs. The judge said that assaulting police officers when they were simply doing their duty would not be tolerated and it called a sentence of some length.

PC Katherine Bancroft read out her own victim impact statement in court and told how the glass struck her in the face causing a serious injury to the nose.

She could still not breathe through her left nostril, she was self conscious of the injury to her nose and eye and had to take a month off from the job she loved.

It was not acceptable to go to work to be assaulted. "I come to work because I love my job and because I want to help colleagues and members of the public," she said.

She had constant migraines from the assault which was completely unprovoked at a time she and her colleagues simply wanted him to leave the house peacefully.

Defending barrister Andrew Green said that the statement of PC Bancroft and other officers was a reminder of the level of public service that officers provided and the daily risks they took "one our behalf."

Officers had been injured for simply doing their duty and his client's actions had not only affected them but members of his own family.

He was still only 22 but had amassed a large number of convictions most of which were for violence.

"If he continues in this way then the reality is that he will spend the best years of his life in prison," said Green.

It would be for the defendant to decide whether he got the help he needed so that he could lead his life in a different way.

A psychiatric report showed the issues he had. It was not only a question of mis-using drugs and alcohol but there were clearly underlying problems that needed to be addressed.

Ted defendant was a man of few words but he had asked him to say how sorry he was for his behaviour.

He hoped to better himself and while on remand had put himself down for English and maths courses.