A MAN who subjected a black officer to a hour-long tirade of racial abuse has been handed a suspended prison sentence.

James Lawson, of Tavistock, appeared at Plymouth Magistrates Court following an incident at Charles Cross Police Station on June 9 this year.

Prosecutor Philip Sewell told the court how police had been called to an address in Chaddlewood Avenue in Plymouth to deal with an incident.

Lawson, aged 28, had locked himself in a room and after he came out ten minutes later the officers arrested him and took him to Charles Cross Police Station’s custody suite.

The court was told that Lawson said he wanted to harm himself and he was taken to a special cell and given what was described in court as a ‘suicide suit’.

Lawson was then seen to begin repeatedly punching the wall and the officers attended to restrain him to stop him causing himself further harm.

Mr Sewell said Lawson first called one of the officers ‘bald and fat’ and as he continued to struggle he was handcuffed.

He then directed his abuse at the other arresting officer who was described as ‘black’.

Mr Sewell said Lawson then directed a litany of vile racial abuse which continued for some time.

Lawson, who pleaded guilty to racially aggravated harassment and racially aggravated common assault, called the officer ‘P**i, n****r, w**’ adding ‘you don’t have the right to be in this country... not so long ago you would be serving me... you’re an insult to the country’.

Mr Sewell said Lawson then intimated that he was ‘into P**i bashing’ and he had connections with the National Front and the English Defence League.

Mr Sewell said Lawson claimed he ‘used to organise P**i bashing’ before calling the officer a ‘black pig’, that he ‘smelled like a P**i’, before shouting ‘there’s no black in the Union Jack’.

At one stage Lawson told the officer ‘I know which station you work at’ which the officer considered to be a veiled threat.

Lawson then spat at the officer, hitting him on the leg of his trousers, before later claiming he had only sneezed.

Mr Sewell said the officer who was subjected to the abuse said it ‘went on for an hour or more’.

The officer had reported how ‘he was simply trying to protect Lawson from harming himself’.

The court was told Lawson later explained he suffered ‘level two arthritis’ following a severe motorcycle accident and being handcuffed to the rear caused him great pain.

In an interview later, Lawson claimed the officer was antagonising him and that he was ‘not a racist person’.

He claimed he used the racist language as it was the ‘only way he felt he could offend’ the officer and ‘get back at him’.

Mr Sewell said Lawson had 27 previous convictions.

In mitigation, his solicitor Julian Jefferson said his client suffered serious damage to his shoulders, legs, knee and joints and had undergone numerous skin grafts and muscle grafts as a result of the motorbike accident. This had led to ‘appalling arthritis’ and being ‘very heavily medicated’.

He said Lawson was physically ‘very much a wreck’ and the strain on his shoulders by being handcuffed had caused him ‘a great deal of pain’.

In addition, he said Lawson suffered ‘quite severe mental health difficulties and had been diagnosed bi-polar disorder and a personality disorder’.

He noted how Lawson’s father had died in January this year which had ‘set him back’ and a month later his best friend passed away in ‘unexpected and strange circumstances’, which had put Lawson ‘into quite a bad decline’.

Mr Jefferson said on the day of his arrest Lawson had come to the conclusion that he needed help with his mental health and had made an appointment with his doctor for later in the day as he was ‘in a suicidal frame of mind’.

Since the incident Lawson had become ‘reclusive, anxious, struggling massively with mental health and set backs’.

He said Lawson had apologised to the officer during police interview and offered his apologies again in court.

He said Lawson claimed he was in a great deal of pain at the time, but accepted he over-reacted and recognised that the police were trying to help him from hurting himself.

He said Lawson admitted he was ‘losing the plot, over-reacted and flipped’ while in custody.

Following a pre-sentence report compiled by a probation officer, magistrates handed Lawson a 12 week jail sentence, suspended for 12 months for each offence. He was also ordered to attend 15 days of rehabilitation activity requirement.