A man has been jailed for two years after a night-time gang attack in which the victim was kicked in the head after being led into a trap.

Alex McPherson played a leading role in the assault on the man after he was lured outside at an address in Bradford on July 4 last year.

McPherson, 22, of Grattan Road, Bradford, pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm and to assaulting a police officer on October 11 by elbowing him in the head. He was in breach of a community order for assault and he also admitted possession of cannabis.

Prosecutor Jessica Randell said the attack on the man was a sustained assault involving a number of people and kicks to the head.

McPherson then went to an address in Bradford he was barred from attending at 9.30am on October 11. He was on bail for the assault at the time.

He was agitated and tried to run away from the police but was detained by an officer.

McPherson became aggressive and swung his elbow hitting the officer on the ear, Miss Randell said.

He had eight small bags of cannabis with him and a grinder. He told the police he had smoked three bags of the drug already that morning.

The court heard that there are around 37 assaults on West Yorkshire police officers every week.

McPherson’s barrister, Ian Howard, said the defendant had serious mental health problems and had fallen victim to the coronavirus pandemic.

He needed a lot of support and he had descended into psychosis because the help he was getting became remote and intermittent. He was in the grip of the psychosis when committing the offences after failing to take his medication and using cannabis.

Mr Howard said McPherson had been in custody since December 15.

He was sentenced at Bradford Crown Court on a video link to HMP Leeds.

Judge Colin Burn jailed him for 12 months for the actual bodily harm offence, nine months for breaching a community order for an earlier assault, and three months for assaulting the police officer, the sentences to run consecutively.

Judge Burn said he entirely accepted Mr Howard’s submissions about McPherson’s state of mental health at the time.

But the assault in July last year was “an unpleasant incident” in which McPherson played a leading role after the victim was led outside into a trap.

The attack on the police officer was while McPherson was on bail for that offence.