Footballer jailed for attacking two police officers with their own pepper spray

One particular footballer has been jailed for attacking two police officers with their own pepper spray, it’s confirmed in January.

The aspiring player Reece Cuthbert, currently living in Dundee, turned into a drug-fuelled thug and lashed out at both of them, attacking before using their own pepper spray.

The male, who also was a hospital worker, then went to pin down one of the officers and tried to gouge out his eyeball.

Drug-fuelled thug who tried to gouge cop’s eye in Dundee is jailed https://t.co/CJaHIt6SNA pic.twitter.com/q5WKMTXl8w

— Evening Telegraph (@Evening_Tele) January 8, 2021

Cuthbert, 25, overpowered the officers when resisting arrest and got hold of a cannister of spray from one of the officers’ body armour.

He sprayed it at the duo’s faces and continued fighting with them as the female officer used a baton to hit out at him up to six times on the head and body so that they can deal with his without resisting.

The court heard the woman’s attempts hardly had an affect on him as the footballer pinned down the male officer and tried repeatedly to gouge out his eyeball.

Cuthbert admitted assaulting and injuring the officers on the 22nd of September and following the recent court appearance has since been jailed.

Fiscal depute Stewart Duncan spoke up, saying that Cuthbert was found by officers in the bin storage area of his Mum’s home.

One of the officers clipped his heel as he decided to leg and all three eventually became involved in a punch up.

Both officers suffered a number of bruises, as well as irritation injury from having acidic spray directed at their faces.

Solicitor Paul Parker-Smith, defending, said his client had taken diazepam on the day in question and could remember very little about even attacking the officers.

Sheriff Alistair Carmichael heard that Cuthbert had started taking cocaine and drinking heavily prior to the incident.

No wonder it ended up playing out as bad as it did!

QUOTES IN COURT

Sheriff Alistair Carmichael told him: “You assaulted two police officers, and that included taking their PAVA spray from them and spraying it into their faces.

“You also attempted to gouge the eye of one officer, and after pinning him to the ground and punching him repeatedly, you again tried to gouge his eye.

“This behaviour is simply not acceptable against anybody. It has crossed the custodial threshold,” the sheriff told Dundee Sheriff Court.

“Due to his strength and body position they could not achieve getting handcuffs on him.

“He overpowered the officer by grabbing his body armour,” Mr Duncan said.

“He was able to grab hold of the PAVA canister. He took off the safety cap, pressed the nozzle and sprayed it in both of their faces.

“PC Nicol managed to kick it out of his hand. Cuthbert continued to resist.

“He took hold of the officer’s glasses and tried to gouge his left eye.

“He was pushing his eyeball. PC Donaldson extended her baton and struck him twice to the back but it had no effect.

“The accused continued to pin PC Nicol on the ground and gouge his eye. The accused was struck three or four times on the head but they struggled to achieve an effective strike.”

Twitter users reacted after reading that the footballer is jailed for attacking two police officers with their own pepper spray…

@derrydode: Wow so this clown gets jailed for 16 months for a pissy crime but the boy the other day gets hailed for 20 months for killing someone, our justice system is f**ked up

@hadda_nuff: Hardly a pissy crime, although I do agree about the 20 month sentence!

@FfeRdOsAZ: 16months for trying to gouge an eye out??? Is that it?

@TheShetlandBus: I love how the defence always seem to have a convenient excuse, “Yes, your honour, my client had just taken some drugs, as he was struggling to cope with the effects of lockdown, therefore he can’t possibly be responsible in any way for his own actions”. Just mince the fuckers.

@ForeveraYellow: Shocking details coming out from that court case, you must be pretty fucked up if you’re going to try and take someone’s eyeballs out of their head. He deserves everything he gets. Police trying to do their job and you go and act a tit. So young this offender as well, got his life ahead of him and it goes and ruins it just like that. Idiot