A vicious thug who tried to gouge a police constable’s eye out on a garage forecourt has been jailed for 32 months.
Siobhan Sharkey thought she was going to die when she set upon by Adam Wright in Fort William last August.
Wright also tried to choke PC Sharkey and pulled out clumps of her hair as he rained “haymaker” punches on her head and body.
Despite the efforts of another officer, it took onlookers to overpower Wright, who later told police that his victim “deserved it”.
Wright, 24, previously admitted assault to severe injury and appeared at Inverness Sheriff Court yesterday for sentencing.
Jailing him, Sheriff Sara Matheson said: “This was an unprovoked, sustained and frenzied attack on a female officer.
“You have shown a lack of remorse and your immediate reaction in the aftermath was that this officer deserved it.
“Also you present a risk to the public and you have no respect for authority.”
The sentence was backdated to August 23 and Wright will be supervised for a further year on his release.
The court previously heard that PC Sharkey saw Wright in a car that had been seized by the police a few days earlier and went to speak to him.
He angrily got out of the car and the officer called for assistance but was told it was 10 minutes away.
She warned Wright about his conduct but he carried on when another constable arrived.
When PC Sharkey tried to arrest Wright, he punched her on the face, and grabbed her in a choke hold that left her unable to breathe.
Karen Aitken, prosecuting, said: “He seized her hair, pulled her down while repeatedly punching her on the face, described by witnesses as ‘haymakers’.
“He thrust his left hand into her left eye socket and attempted to gouge out her eyeball, causing her to scream in agony.
“She said she could feel his finger behind her eyeball and believed that her eye was going to come out.
“She later indicted that she thought she was going to die.”
PC Sharkey suffered scratches to her corneas and multiple bruises and only returned to full-time work this week.
Graham Mann, defending, said Inverness prisoner Wright, who comes from England, suffered from autism and psychosis.
