TWO POLICE officers who were injured in the line of duty have been praised for their bravery.

Recorder Paul Grumbar praised the officers as he handed a suspended prison sentence to 23-year-old Ryan Ludgate for offences of assault with intent to resist arrest at a caravan in west Dorset earlier this summer.

Dorchester Crown Court was told how the two officers attended the caravan in Charmouth following reports of a domestic argument on June 24.

While they were there the officers searched Ludgate’s bag and found an amount of cannabis. Prosecutor Jonathan Underhill said when they went to arrest the defendant he became “violent” and launched an “ongoing, sustained assault against both officers”.

One officer suffered head injuries as a result and the other suffered an injury to his shoulder.

PC Richard Winward, the officer who has sustained head injuries, said in a statement: “I have been a police officer for 24 years and it was one of the most violent situations I have been involved in.”

The court was told Ludgate, of Goldsmith Street, Heavitree, Exeter, had drunk four cans of premium strength lager or cider on the day of the incident and had claimed this had affected his judgement.

Felicity Payne, mitigating, said his behaviour was “out of character”. She added that her client had been taking medication for depression and had been trying to address his alcohol intake since the incident.

Ms Payne said Ludgate accepted he had “reacted in an inappropriate way” when the officers had gone to arrest him.

Recorder Grumbar sentenced Ludgate to six months in prison, suspended for two years. He was also made subject to a programme requirement and rehabilitation requirement and handed a six-week curfew.

Recorder Grumbar told the defendant: “Police officers have quite a frightening job to do coming across people like you and not knowing how you are going to react. It’s the job of this court to protect police officers from people like you so other people know that when they are confronted by police officers they have got to behave themselves.”

After sentence, he added: “The offices in this case behaved incredibly well and rather bravely.”