Pc sprayed with petrol feared he would be set alight
A police officer feared he would be set alight when an agitated man sprayed petrol and white spirit at him before appearing to look for a lighter, a court heard.
Pc Thomas Kevin Jones was in a rural location and knew that any police help would be many miles away.
Fearing that he would be set alight he retreated but when he went to the defendant's address a short time later, Ian McColm had armed himself with a penknife.
He was shouting and swearing and had a lighter in his hand which he refused to drop, prosecuting barrister Brett Williamson told Mold Crown Court. He was sprayed with incapacitant and over-powered.
McColm, of the Maes yr Escob estate at Llanrhaeadr ym Mochnant, near Oswestry, admitted affray and possessing cannabis following the incident in February last year.
Mr Williamson told the court police had received several reports from the defendant in the period leading up to the incident in which he made persecutory allegations.
That day Pc Jones arrived in his car to make a welfare check and tried to speak to him but the defendant was threatening.
As the officer withdrew his baton the defendant threw petrol from a coffee jar at him, as he searched for something, feared to be a lighter, in his trouser pocket.
Judge David Hale said that the defendant was seriously mentally ill at the time but since then he had received treatment and had made a great deal of effort.
He was placed on a 12-month community order with supervision.
The judge also made a permanent restraining order that the defendant must not approach Pc Jones in any way while he is off duty.
