Female police officer elbowed in face by Wigan man following supermarket altercation

Shoppers told staff at the Aldi outlet on Scot Lane, Newtown, that 35-year-old Wayne McMahon was outside on December 1 using offensive language and they called the police.

Wigan and Leigh Magistrates’ Court heard that two officers attended soon afterwards and asked him to leave the area.

Tess Kenyon, prosecuting, said: “He refused to leave.

“Then he said he would leave but he was going to have a drink and a cigarette before he left.

“He was warned again that if he didn’t leave the area, he would be arrested.”

The officers offered to take him home and asked if they could do anything to help him leave, justices were told.

But he refused to give an address, and so they decided to arrest him.

It was at this point that an increasingly aggressive McMahon elbowed an officer in the chin, pushing her back into a car that was about to reverse, the court heard.

In the process he knocked an earpiece out and the officer pressed her emergency button so more police officers would attend.

McMahon was eventually arrested and taken to a police station, where he initially said he was not aggressive, but then apologised for knocking the officer’s radio to the floor when he was shown body-worn footage.

He said he was drinking a can of alcohol on the car park on his way home from McDonald’s.

In a victim impact statement read to the court, the police officer said: “He was aggressive and his behaviour was in front of members of the public on a busy car park.

“I warned him about this when we originally arrived because there were toddlers walking around.

“His behaviour was appalling, especially on a Sunday afternoon when there were families around doing their shopping.”

McMahon, of Kitt Green Road, Kitt Green, pleaded guilty to assault with intent to resist arrest.

Defending, Nick Lloyd said McMahon was “socially isolated” with no friends or support network around him, including no-one to point out how much he was drinking, and his mental health was affected.

He was “in drink” at the time of the incident and was “making a mild nuisance of himself” before police were called.

Sentencing, the chairman of the bench told McMahon: “We as magistrates are going to do everything we can to protect people in public places, like staff at the superstore and the police officers who were called because they felt threatened.

“Quite possibly there were children there as well. It was a serious offence.”

He imposed an 18-month community order, which is to include 15 days of rehabilitation activities, an alcohol treatment requirement for nine months and an eight-week curfew from 7pm to 7am.

McMahon was also ordered to pay £90 in compensation to the police officer.