Delacombe man jailed for punching policeman

A DELACOMBE man was jailed for 20 months yesterday after punching a Ballarat police sergeant in the face.Craig Frazer, 39, pleaded guilty in the Ballarat Magistrates Court to one charge of recklessly causing serious injury.The court heard Sergeant Stuart Gale received a broken nose and a cut above his left eye in the attack at the cells at the Ballarat Police Station last December.The prosecution tendered CCTV footage of the incident which was shown to the court.Barrister Sally Flynn said Frazer had initially been arrested by police after a random breath test.She said on December 12 he had been drinking at his home with some friends when he decided to go for a drive.As he turned into Dana Street from Albert Street, he was intercepted by police and found to be intoxicated.He was taken to the Ballarat Police Station where he recorded a 0.094 blood-alcohol level.Frazer was fined and released from the station about 1am and attempted to call his partner to pick him up but was unsuccessful.Ms Flynn said Frazer started to become verbally abusive towards police who were walking into the station and Senior Constable Adam Grant went outside to check on him.The aggressive behaviour escalated and Frazer was arrested and taken into the cells.She said it was there that Sergeant Gale asked Frazer to remove his shoes.Ms Flynn said Frazer became agitated and flung the shoes into the cell before punching Sergeant Gale to the left side of his head.The impact caused Sergeant Gale to fall to the ground, and he received a cut about his left eye and a broken nose.Frazer was forcibly subdued by police and handcuffed.Defence lawyer Mike Wardell said the punch was in response to unwanted physical contact from Sergeant Gale.He said although Frazer had a long history of offending, a forensic psychologist had found he had a low threshold of tolerance, perceiving provocation more readily than others."All he wanted to do was go home," he said.He suggested Magistrate Tim McDonald impose an intensive corrective order to help Frazer address his alcohol and violence problems.However Mr McDonald questioned how many chances Frazer had already been given and said the only remorse he had shown was to plead guilty."I do not find the police officer was acting aggressively towards the accused," he said."Many fatalities have occurred because of one punch."He sentenced Frazer to 20 months imprisonment with a 12 month non-parole period.Frazer appealed the sentence and was bailed to appeal at a later date.