Barnstaple PoliceA man has been arrested in Devon for attacking three police officers after he went on a ‘vodka and cocaine binge’.
The man, Edward Boulton, was reportedly heard by his neighbours smashing up his home in Barnstaple before ‘wandering around’ with blood on his chest from an open wound.
When officers arrived on the scene, they recognised Boulton immediately thanks to his distinctive appearance and a misspelled tattoo across the top of his torso. He also has a record for drunken violence.
Officers said they found Boulton ‘groaning and semi-conscious’ under a blanket in his living, with two lines of cocaine on a table nearby, DevonLive reports.
Police recognised the man’s tattoo, which is a quote widely (and incorrectly) attributed to Winston Churchill, which reads: ‘If your going through hell, keep going.’ As we all know, the second word should read ‘you’re’, to denote ‘you are’ rather than the possessive pronoun ‘your’.
Three police officers had arrived at Boulton’s address to check on him following the reports, however he became angry at being woken up and reportedly lashed out at the officers.
Boulton had to be restrained by the officers, who suffered cuts and bruises in the struggle.
Barnstaple Police26-year-old Boulton later admitted to three counts of assaulting emergency workers and one count of possessing cocaine when he appeared at Exeter Crown Court.
He was given an 18-week prison sentence, suspended for two years, and ordered to pay £450 compensation along with 100 hours of unpaid work and 19 days of rehabilitation activities.
Judge Timothy Rose said he was suspending the sentence as Boulton had recently become a father and had started working with the probation service in order to address his drinking.
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Charlie Cocksedge is a journalist and sub-editor at UNILAD. He graduated from the University of Manchester with an MA in Creative Writing, where he learnt how to write in the third person, before getting his NCTJ. His work has also appeared in such places as The Guardian, PN Review and the bin.