A drinker who throttled a police sergeant until he was gasping for breath has been jailed.

Thursday, 22 May 2025 14:44

By Megi Rychlikova

The sergeant and his colleagues had been called to deal with Carl Harding after he caused a disturbance and tried to jump over a counter at a pizza takeaway, said Rachael Landin, prosecuting.

He had been drinking, was stumbling around, swearing and threatening to punch people.

As he was being arrested for being drunk and disorderly, he put his arm round the sergeant’s neck and squeezed “to the point where the police sergeant was struggling to breathe,” she said.

He pulled the policeman to the ground and lying on top of him continued to put pressure on the policeman’s neck.

“He could be heard gargling for breath,” said the barrister of the officer.

The sergeant was unable to reach his alarm button to call for help and the other officers present tried unsuccessfully to pull Harding off him.

At one point, the sergeant’s situation was so desperate he tried without success to bite Harding’s arm to get him off him.

“It was very apparent the effects of the strangulation were significant for the sergeant and it required a significant level of force to get this defendant to release him,” said Ms Landin.

Eventually more officers arrived and Harding was removed to a police station. In its custody suite, he continued to shout and be aggressive and abusive, demanding “one on one fights” and then said he “just wanted a kebab and go home”.

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