JAILED: Man made syringe threat in bid to escape police

Nathan James Williams, a prolific shoplifter, was being transported to Tipton Police Station after being arrested for threatening security guards with a knife when he fled on December 1 last year.

The handcuffed 43-year-old who had been calm when he got into the vehicle, made his move when driver Pc Mark Dunn stopped at traffic lights near Tipton Methodist Church.

Miss Lynette McClements, prosecuting, said the defendant who was sitting behind the officer suddenly put his arms over the officer's head and pulled back.

He then told the officer that he had a syringe and would "stick it in his throat".

She told Wolverhampton Crown Court: "Pc Dunn managed to remove the key from the ignition due to his concern that Williams would attempt to take the vehicle. In effect it was very dramatic."

She said the officer was concerned that at 6ft 2ins and weighing about 20st, Williams would overpower both him and colleague Pc Nigel Gaskin who was in the front passenger seat.

In his statement Pc Dunn stated: "It happened so fast and came out of the blue. His demeanour changed within a short space of time. I put the key in my pocket and managed to get the seatbelt loose. I dropped down out of his arms, but my feet got stuck.

"I decided to draw my taser and as I pulled it out I pointed it at him and shouted for him to get back."

Despite the officer drawing his taser Williams refused to get into the custody cage in the rear of the van, the court heard.

Moments later he fled on foot with the officers pursuing him across the road and past a bus carrying stunned parents and children.

"Their tasers were drawn. The parents were calling out that there were children present. The officers feared that he would use a child as a shield. They approached him and deployed the taser. He fell to the ground and they deploy it again, " she said.

Sentencing him judge Mr Recorder Richard Atkins said: "This was a a deeply unpleasant incident and carried out in public. With the police officer petrified that he was going to be stabbed with a syringe.

"He wasn't to know whether you had a needle or not."

Miss McClements said Williams, of Pebble Close, Stourbridge, was involved in shoplifting incidents at Tesco near Dudley and Asda, Merry Hill on October 4.

He was at Tesco at 5.05pm with his brother Wayne Williams when he produced a six-inch blade after security guards approached them.

Then at 5.36pm Williams was spotted at Asda where police were called and he was arrested.

He was released and on October 31 he and another brother Stuart Williams were involved in an incident at Co-op, in Spies Lane, Halesowen, where the defendant was heard directing their driver to run over security guard Tella Tajudeen, who was trying to stop them from escaping with vodka.

The court heard that Williams, had 50 previous convictions from 149 offences, including 94 for dishonesty.

In June 2019 he was jailed for 26 weeks for shoplifting. When he was released he carried out the latest string of crimes.

Mr Simon Rippon, mitigating barrister, said: "My client is sorry of his offending. In particular for the possession of the knife and for assaulting the police officer.

"Having spoken to him he seems to got involved in mainly acquisitive crime and seems have a significant heroin and crack cocaine habit which he has been unable to shed.

"Over the years that is what has led him to be banned from a series of shops where he lives. He has become more involved in more serious types of offending."

Williams was jailed for a total of 42 months after he admitted offences of assault occasioning actually bodily harm against the officer, escape from custody, racially aggravated harassment, and threatening with a bladed article.

He must serve half the term.