A CONVICTED burglar has been jailed for trying to bite a police officer after demanding a mask when he was under arrest in a patrol car.

Anthony Murgatroyd had been apprehended and handcuffed on suspicion of attacking his former partner, Bradford Crown Court heard.

When the police officers were unable to provide him with a mask, he became agitated and had to be removed from the vehicle and then taken to the ground.

He was being put into the back of a police van by a number of officers when he went limp and tried to bite the male officer on the arm.

Murgatroyd, 45, of Thackeray Road, Ravenscliffe, Bradford, was then placed in leg restraints and transported to the police station, prosecutor David McGonigal said.

He pleaded guilty to assault on a police officer as an emergency worker on June 20 last year and was jailed for four months.

The court heard that he was a serving prisoner having since been jailed for 32 months for burgling a house the following month.

Murgatroyd and his accomplice disturbed a sleeping householder at dead of night after mistakenly thinking there were drugs in the house to steal.

The men broke into the address in Carrington Street, Bradford Moor, Bradford, through the kitchen window on July 16.

When the occupant, who was asleep in bed, was disturbed by the noise, the men fled the property. Blood found at the scene was a DNA match for Murgatroyd who went on to admit the offence.

His solicitor advocate, Saf Salam, asked the court to pass a sentence that did not keep him in prison beyond his release date of July 16, 2021.

But The Recorder of Bradford, Judge Richard Mansell QC, ordered that the four month sentence run consecutively with the jail term for the burglary.

He said police officers were at increased risk of harm every day they were working through the Covid-19 pandemic. Trying to bite an officer put him at risk of other infections as well.

Mr McGonigal said the allegation that Murgatroyd had assaulted his former partner was not being proceeded with and a not guilty verdict was entered.

Murgatroyd’s previous convictions include serving a 15 year prison sentence imposed in 2002 for drug trafficking, kidnap, threats to kill and wounding.

He was most displeased with the consecutive sentence and shouted his annoyance from the dock before being led back to the cells.