Man caught standing on police car asks judge for stint in prison

A man pleaded with a judge to send him to jail after he was caught standing on a police car in the early hours of the morning.

Julian Thackray, of Florin Way, Pontefract, said he wanted time behind bars “to sort his life out”, when he appeared for sentencing at Leeds Crown Court this morning.

He had previously pleaded guilty to causing criminal damage and to failing to surrender to Leeds Magistrates’ Court.

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The 24-year-old was caught on CCTV standing on the bonnet of the police car in Beastfair, Pontefract at around 4.20am on April 15, the court was told.

Prosecutor Martin Robertshaw said police were alerted to the incident and searched the streets for Thackray before finding him hid behind another parked vehicle.

They discovered minor damage to the police car.

Mr Robertshaw said: “[Thackray] said that he had been out with friends drinking and had been encouraged by those friends to stand on the police car.”

Thackray nodded from the dock as David Ward, mitigating, told the court his client’s life was “very chaotic” and he wanted a period of custody.

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Mr Ward said: “He said to me, ‘I need to get away from what’s going on in my life outside and have a place where I can reflect and start again with a clean slate.’”

Recorder Simon Batiste told Thackray he would have considered other sentencing options but concluded: “I recognise that there is not a constructive alternative I can impose upon you.”

Thackray was sentenced to one month in prison for criminal damage and received no separate penalty for failing to surrender.

He was also sentenced to a further three months in jail for breaching a suspended sentence imposed in November 2015.

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