An off-duty police officer who tried to stop a drunk driver after she crashed in a pub car park was attacked by the driver's fiancé, a court heard.
Convicted offender Anthony Walker, 34, had been at the Fat Cat and Canary pub in Norwich, with his partner.
Norwich Crown Court heard an off-duty police officer became aware of Walker’s partner “driving a car in the car park and crashing”.
John Farmer, prosecuting, said the officer realised the driver was intoxicated and “took some proper steps to stop her driving”.
He produced his warrant card to show he was a police officer before Walker emerged and told him not to touch his partner.
Walker produced a Stanley knife and “used it to threaten” the officer, jabbing it towards him.
The officer was then punched by Walker who continued to punch and kick him while he was on the ground.
A member of the public tried to pull the officer away but was himself punched in the face by Walker.
Mr Farmer described it as a “vicious assault” on the off-duty officer by Walker, whose previous convictions include rape, robbery and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
The officer described being “extremely frightened” during the incident in a victim impact statement to the court.
Walker, of The Sidings, Norwich, appeared at court for sentence on Wednesday (November 24) having admitted threatening another person with a blade, assault occasioning actual bodily harm and common assault on October 1 this year.
Walker also admitted failing to comply with notification requirements between August 2020 and September 2021.
Jailing Walker for a total of 27 months, Judge Katharine Moore described it as a “shameful episode” at a pub which caused “considerable fear, alarm and distress”.
Damien Moore, mitigating, said it had been “a moment of complete and utter stupidity” and something he “regretted from the moment he was arrested”.
He said he had gone outside and “saw his partner being manhandled by two men”.
Mr Moore said Walker “misread” the situation but by the time he became aware of the facts “had already lost control”.
The court was told these were Walker’s first offences in a decade.
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