‘I’ll slap the head off you,’ Samuel Crawford screamed at officers

A grinning thug who nearly blinded a female police officer in a drunken rage over an unpaid taxi fare has been given a suspended sentence.

Samuel Crawford was so drunk during the incident he had no memory of getting into the taxi and had no means to pay the £17.60 tariff with just a lighter and a car key in his pocket.

He felled the constable with a single punch and damaged her cornea during the violent outburst which has seen the policewoman off sick for months as a result.

Earlier this month at Laganside Magistrates Court, the boozed-up brute confessed to making off without paying, disorderly behaviour, assault and assault on police.

The 35-year-old also denied common assault, two counts of resisting arrest and two further counts of assault on police — however he was convicted on all charges.

The court heard police were called to a report of a taxi passenger making off without paying on Westland Way, north Belfast, in the early hours of April 16 this year.

​Two officers in attendance implored Crawford to go home and sober up, the court heard, but the incident quickly turned nasty as he became aggressive with both of them.

Body-worn camera footage was shown to the court and depicted a swaying and slurring Crawford shouting at and then attacking two cops. In the clip he could be heard telling a male officer: “I am going to slap the head off you, I’m going to spit in your face,” before doing so, with the spit landing on the left side of the officer’s face.

A struggle ensues and a female officer is punched in the right eye, causing her to scream out in pain and would leave her needing an emergency operation on her eye-socket in hospital.

The court heard how the blow from Crawford had caused such an abrasion to her cornea, there is now blurred vision in the eye as well as redness.

The male officer also described in his statement an agitated Crawford “tensing his arms” while saying, “I’m going to f***ing beat the f*** out of you”.

A defence lawyer told the court Crawford had recently turned over a new leaf, adding: “The change in circumstances has been the birth of a child and he has now turned his life around”.

Read more Mickeybo killer back in jail after heroin binge broke terms of prison release

Sentencing him, deputy district judge Anne Marshall said: “All he had to do was leave the scene and pay the fare the next day and he wouldn’t be here.

“He couldn’t even remember getting the taxi and entered the car with only a lighter and a car key which speaks to his level of intoxication.

“The whole thing is utter madness, if he had just taken the numerous opportunities to move on when asked to do so by police, he would have been fine.

“The officer is still off sick with the injury to her eye.”

Crawford, of York Road, Belfast, was sentenced to seven months in jail, suspended for two years.