A COVENTRY criminal has been handed a suspended sentence for making threats towards a police officer – just 48 hours after being released from prison.
Michael Ison of The Greenfield, Stoke Aldermoor, was sentence to 12-month prison sentence suspended for two years, with supervision for 18 months, after the 28-year-old pleaded to guilty to threatening to take revenge and causing criminal damage.
Ison was released on June 12 after serving four-and-a-half months of a nine month sentence for assaulting PC Stephen Haynes in January this year as the officer tried to arrest him on suspicion of dangerous driving.
But within 48 hours of his release, Ison posted a photograph on his Facebook page which had been taken of PC Haynes following the assault with the comments: “4 an half months for this sausage. This man deserves everythink [sic] he gets.”
As a result, Ison was arrested on July 11 and was aggressive towards officers, telling them to ‘f*** off’ or he would set his dogs on them.
Following his arrest he was placed in a cell where he defecated and smeared his faeces all over himself and the cell.
When he was interviewed, Ison threatened that PC Haynes needed to be removing from policing the Stoke Aldermoor estate ‘for his own good’, adding: “I won’t be responsible for what I do to him when I see him on the estate.”
The court heard how PC Haynes, who had suffered a broken nose in the assault by Ison, had been caused anxiety by the nature of the threats.
Prosecutor Michelle Heeley said that as well as his assault on the officer, Ison had other convictions for violence including slashing someone with a knife in 2010, for which he had been jailed for 21 months.
But Adam Western, defending, argued Ison had already been in custody for five months and five days – the equivalent of a ten-and-a-half months sentence.
Recorder Adrian Redgrave QC handed Ison a ‘preventative order’ in the form of a suspended sentence.
He added: “It seems to me he’s had some punishment; and what is most helpful in the future is if he knows he’s under the threat of a suspended sentence and can have some assistance in determining the way he behaves from the probation service.
Mr Regrave then told Ison: “It is quite clear from this offending that you have difficulty in relating to police officers.
“The more serious of these offences is the making of a frightening threat relating to PC Haynes.
“But the reason for this sentence is to try to prevent you repeating offences of this sort.
“You should know therefore that if in the next two years you commit any offence, the sentence of 12 months imprisonment, which I shall suspend, can be brought into effect.”
