A DRUG addict who spat in the face of a policeman has been put behind bars again and told that the assault had been "despicable."

Robert Edwards-Sutton - who has committed 116 previous offences - had a suspended prison sentence hanging over him at the time he was arrested and taken to Wirral custody suite on suspicion of offences.

Ironically, those matters were later not proceeded with but while in his cell he urinated on the floor and wrapped his t-shirt around his neck.

Concerned officers went in to Edwards-Sutton, believed to be under the influence of drugs, to remove his clothes to prevent him harming himself, said Iain Criddle, prosecuting.

He was restrained after a struggle and as the officers were leaving Sgt Graham Williams unfortunately slipped on the wet floor and the defendant then spat in his face.

Sentencing him to a total of 11 months imprisonment the judge, Recorder David Knifton, said: "It was a despicable act because of the considerable concern to that police officer, not because of the infliction of serious injury, but the risks that a known drug user could cause."

Liverpool Crown Court heard that, in December last year, Edwards-Sutton was sentenced to nine months suspended for 18 months for criminal damage and burglary during which he confronted the woman householder before running out.

The defendant, of Lansdowne Road, Oxton, pleaded guilty to assaulting Sgt Williams on April 11 this year.

Anna Duke, defending, said that Edwards-Sutton had been responding well to the community element of his last sentence but had relapsed to his drug taking ways.

He is a father-of-two whose partner, the mother of the youngest child, is supporting him, she added.

Recorder Knifton activated ten months of the suspended sentence with one month consecutive for the assault.