A MAN who twice a spat in a police constable's face during the pandemic was today ordered to pay him £300 compensation.

Nathan McDonald, 31, pleaded guilty to assault on an emergency worker last January.

It occurred after police had been called to an incident at his home in Maes y Fron, Colwyn Bay, in which he was drunk and irate.

He said to PC Sion Philips: “I remember you from last time, I'm going to terrorise you,” said Anna Price, prosecuting at Caernarfon crown court.

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McDonald suggested he had Covid and twice spat in the PC's face as they walked towards cells.

PC Philips moved to another address for a few days to make sure that if he had been infected his family would not catch the virus.

The court heard that in 2012 McDonald had been jailed for nine years eight months for robbery, being released in 2017.

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Samantha Powis, defending, said he was a factory worker in a stable relationship and was no longer drinking. He had also rid himself of a drug addiction and acted as a carer.

Judge Nicola Saffman imposed a nine months suspended prison sentence and said the implication had been that he was threatening the PC with Covid.

To ensure that he really had given up drink the judge ordered an abstinence monitoring requirement for 120 days.

There is also three months of alcohol treatment with 20 days rehabilitation and 35 programme sessions.

MacDonald must also pay a £156 victim surcharge.