(Image: CLEVELAND POLICE)
A knife-swinging attacker who launched a glass ashtray and water from a kettle at police officers has been jailed.
David Hey started waving a zombie-style knife at police officers after they entered his home searching for a missing teenage girl and discovered he was wanted.
As the officers tried to arrest the 40-year-old, he threw water from a kettle, not knowing the temperature, and a glass ashtray, which smashed on the wall and shattered onto an officer.
Hey, who had hold of the knife throughout the confrontation, then tried to pick up a sofa to block himself in before police discharged a taser and handcuffed him.
Teesside Crown Court heard on Tuesday (October 20) how Hey, of Hutton Avenue in Hartlepool, was "terrified he was going to be put into custody”.
Nigel Soppitt, prosecuting, said he climbed onto a kitchen island during the ordeal and started swinging the "large, silver metal knife".
“He picked up the sofa attempting to use it as a barricade,” he said.
Mr Constantine described how he had the knife with him “all the time” throughout the incident, which lasted around ten minutes, before he was eventually arrested.
Stephen Constantine, mitigating, said there were “no issues at all until the point of which [an] officer says: "I am going to arrest you”.
He said the knife did not belong to Hey, who he noted had an “adverse childhood” and has had mental health problems “for a considerable time”.
He has been diagnosed with depression and anxiety, the court heard.
“At the time he was terrified he was going to be put into custody,” he said.
“He had not been taking his prescribed medication but had instead been taking a variety of other drugs.”
Hey pleaded guilty at the first opportunity to six charges including possession of an offensive weapon in a private place, affray, common assault, two counts of assault by beating two separate police officers and threatening a person with an offensive weapon in a private place.
Mr Constantine said Hey is “able to look at things with a bit more clarity" after spending some time in custody.
"He is dealing with his mental health problems and is back on his prescription medication," he said.
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He described his involvement with the justice system as a “revolving door” and asked the judge to “give him the opportunity to prove himself”.
But the judge said Hey, who has 42 convictions for 105 offences, including battery and assaulting an emergency worker, had committed “serious offences”.
“Any offence involving a weapon of this sort is extremely serious,” he said.
Hey, who appeared via video link from HMP Holme House, was jailed for 24 months.