AN IPSWICH man who hurled a slightly-built policewoman head first into a concrete post before attacking her colleague with a broom is today behind bars.

AN IPSWICH man who hurled a slightly-built policewoman head first into a concrete post before attacking her colleague with a broom is today behind bars.

Billy Snell, of Shackleton Square, "completely lost it" when he assaulted two officers so badly one required four stitches to his elbow.

Ipswich Crown Court heard how police were called to Snell's then home in Nansen Road, Ipswich, after reports of a domestic dispute.

They arrived in the early hours to find 24-year-old Snell drunk and hiding in a bush in the garden.

His initial calmness disappeared when officers asked for Snell's details.

Prosecutor Michael Crimp said: "He completely lost it. He punched the kitchen window putting his hand through it. Police told him they were arresting him. He started to resist, increasingly more aggressively."

When a female Pc tried to contain him, he grabbed her and swung her at a three-foot concrete post with such ferocity her colleague thought she had been knocked unconscious.

Mr Crimp went on: "Her colleague felt he was in grave difficulty and went to use his CS gas. At that point the defendant picked up a garden broom. The officer put his arm out to protect his face but the defendant brought the broom down with such force on his arm, the officer thought he had broken his elbow."

Snell's defence counsel, Joanne Eley, called the drink-fuelled attack "utterly out of character."

She added Snell had the greatest remorse for his actions and fully apologised to the officers involved.

Snell admitted criminal damage, assault with intent to resist arrest and assault causing actual bodily harm.

Judge John Holt, in sentencing Snell to eight months, said: "Had it not have been for the effects of the CS gas the attack might have continued. It was a determined and persistent attack."