A man who stabbed a police officer in the neck with a wine bottle in an unprovoked attack at a funfair has been jailed for five years.

Homeless Tony Bull, 23, stabbed PC Paul Dalton, a member of Carshalton’s safer neighbourhood team, without warning from behind at 8.30pm on Sunday, May 24.

At Croydon Crown Court last Friday, Bull, who pleaded guilty to attempted grievous bodily harm, was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment.

The court heard PC Dalton, 44, chased Bull and arrested him after the attack at W Davis funfair in Wrythe Lane, Carshalton.

PC Dalton, tasked with dealing with disorder and nuisance, suffered a 2cm minor wound between his shoulder blade and neck and was protected from more serious injury by his stab-proof vest.

With the help of a member of the public, who gave him a lift in his car, he chased Bull, who has drink and drug problems, into Plumpton Road, where he arrested him.

Prosecutor Sue Obeney, said: “The witness said he [Bull] had a ‘cheeky’ grin on his face when he was in the act of attacking the officer.”

Defending, Gordon Ross said a consultant psychiatric report found there was no strong evidence to say Bull, who is already serving 14 months consecutively for assault occasioning actual bodily harm and common assault, had an emerging pattern of violent behaviour.

He said Bull came from a physically abusive home and his father had left him when he was nine years old. He said: “He seems motivated to abstain from alcohol and drugs in the future.”

During sentencing, Judge Ruth Downing made it clear the offence was “particularly unpleasant” because Bull had approached his victim from behind in a “surprise attack” and struck him with a broken bottle.

She said: “Although the victim did not report any physical damage and he received only the most minor psychological injuries, I have no doubt that it was most disturbing to him.”

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