A violent offender wrestled a Taser off the policeman who was trying to arrest him and turned the weapon on another officer, a court has heard. Richard Al-Rawazik aimed the stun gun's red laser sight at the female officer - an act known as "red dotting" - but was disarmed and taken to the floor before he could fire it.
The 39-year-old defendant - who previously used the name Richard Morgan - has a history of offending including affray, assaulting emergency workers, and robbery. Sending the dad-of-two down a judge told him he had a "violent temper and a dreadful attitude towards the police" and told him that was something he needed to tackle.
Helen Randall, prosecuting, told Swansea Crown Court that on January 26 this year two police officers went to Al-Rawazik's address to arrest him over a series of voicemail messages he had sent to a woman earlier that week in which he subjected to her to racist abuse, threated her son and said the youngster had "f***** with the wrong person". He threated to burn her house down adding "burn baby burn", saying "boys around the corner" were waiting to torch the property. For the latest court reports, sign up to our crime newsletter here
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The court heard the PCs encountered Al-Rawazik on the landing of the property and he immediately told them that he had previously assaulted police officers. The defendant then began to resist arrest, initially by clamping his arms around the banisters on the stairs then by aggressively swinging his arms around. The prosecutor said Al-Rawazik then made a bolt for the stairs but was grabbed by one of the constables and in the ensuing struggle both men fell down the stairs, the officers striking his head as he did so.
A second struggle ensued at the bottom of the stairs involving the defendant and both officers during which Pava incapacitant spray was used, though in the confined space some of the spray went into the female officer's face. The court heard Al-Rawazik managed to grab a Taser from the male officer, pointed the weapon at his colleague, and "red dotted" her with its laser targeting sight. The second officer managed to disarm Al-Rawazik before she took him to the floor but the defendant got to his feet and tried to run off through the front door. A Taser was discharged and the defendant was detained until further police units arrived.
In his subsequent interview the defendant denied leaving the messages which had brought the officers to his door but refused to reveal the PIN access code for his phone. He accepted he was was non-compliant on arrest but said he could not remember taking hold of the Taser and said he had consumed Valium prior to the officers' arrival.
Richard Kaisar Al-Rawazik, of Osborne Street, Neath, had previously pleaded guilty to sending malicious communications, assaulting an emergency worker, possession of a prohibited weapon, and possession of a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence when he appeared in the dock for sentencing. He has 23 previous convictions for 49 offences including resisting or obstructing a constable, battery, theft of a hand bag from a woman at Costa Coffee, assaulting emergency workers, affray, and robbery for which he received a seven-year prison sentence in 2009.
Caitlin Brazel, for Al-Rawazik, said the defendant had been struggling with his mental health since the drug overdose death of his pregnant partner some seven years ago. She said her client accepted his behaviour on the day in question had been "foolish and unacceptable", and said he was conscious of the impact of this offending on his children who had been told he was currently "working away" rather than he was being held on remand in prison awaiting sentence.
Judge Paul Thomas KC told Al-Rawazik he had sent a series of "utterly vile" messages to the woman then been "obstreperous" and violent when officers arrested him. He said it was clear that the defendant had a "violent temper and a dreadful attitude towards the police" and told him that was something he needed to address.
With a discount for his guilty pleas Al-Rawazik was sentenced to a total of two years in prison comprising three months for sending the offensive messages, three months for assaulting an emergency worker, and three months for possession of a prohibited weapon to all to run concurrently, and 21 months for possession of a firearm with intent to cause fear to run consecutively. Al-Rawazik will serve up to half the two years in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community.
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