Man Tasered after threats to kill police is jailed
The court heard how Dean Pope threw a beer glass at the police car, stabbed the bonnet with a carving knife, battered the car with a length of four-by-two timber and twice threatened to kill the officers.
After an armed response unit was called, he was felled by a burst from a police Taser after advancing on a Taser-armed policewoman.
Pope, who stands barely five feet tall, was dwarfed by two court security staff as he stood in Court Three's glass dock.
He pleaded guilty to threatening to kill police officers Jamie Middleton and Steven Blake at Duncombe Avenue, Honicknowle, and to damaging a police car and possessing a bladed article on the same date.
But he pleaded not guilty to having two offensive weapons – a knife and a piece of wood – because he claimed he never intended to use them on the officers.
Prosecutor Llewellyn Sellick said the pleas were acceptable to the Crown, and described the dramatic events of March 17.
Around 4.30pm, Pope's mother Valerie called police to her home in Duncombe Avenue, asking them to remove her son.
Officers Middleton and Blake arrived to see Pope standing outside the house holding a pint glass.
He challenged them, swearing, and hurled the glass and its contents at the car, smashing the glass.
The officers were about to get out when they saw Pope was armed with a knife similar to a carving knife with a six-inch blade.
He then attacked the car and tried to force his way inside, twice threatening to kill the officers.
He caused £1,000 damage to the vehicle by stabbing and battering it.
An armed response unit arrived and Pope was Tasered.
When interviewed, he told police his sudden withdrawal from heroin had made him "angry and weird".
He apologised for his actions and said he had no intention of hurting the officers.
Mr Sellick said Pope, 32, and of Roope Close, Honicknowle, had a long record including assaults on police, affray and criminal damage.
In 2000 he was jailed for three years for his part in a fracas in which Royal Marine Corporal Kevin Weaver was killed; North Prospect man Francis Fletcher, one of Pope's group, admitted manslaughter.
Ali Rafati, for Pope, said the death of his 14 year-old brother in a car crash had a massive impact on him, as had the three-year jail sentence.
After giving up drugs, he had found a partner and fathered a baby boy, but they split up eight months ago.
Pope had gone back on heroin, been denied access to his child and was unable to get treatment at Derriford Hospital's Glenbourne Unit.
Mr Rafati said: "In the days leading up to the offences he was emotionally and psychologically completely shattered.
"He knew his mother had called the police and was waiting to take his anger out on them, get arrested and get help.
"When he made the threats, he wanted the police to believe him."
Deputy Circuit Judge Lester Boothman said: "This was clearly terrifying for the police, and serious enough for them to use a Taser.
"In some ways, this was a misguided cry for help."
He gave Pope credit for his guilty pleas and noted he was doing well in prison. He jailed him for a total of 18 months, less 98 days spent on remand.
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