A MOTORIST drove “erratically” near children outside a Carlisle primary school - and then bit a PC after police were called.

Provisional licence holder Matthew Brian Dodds took his father’s Nissan Navara without consent after the pair had argued on September 28.

His conduct behind the wheel then drew the attention of an off-duty crime scene investigator close to the city’s Newtown Primary School.

Brendan Burke, prosecuting, told Carlisle Crown Court: “He came across the defendant driving in an erratic and bizarre manner in the Raffles area; a suburban residential area busy with pedestrians.

“The piece of driving, he said, was taking place directly opposite a primary school from which children and parents were coming and going.

“The defendant was revving the vehicle, screeching tyres, spinning the wheels, reversing at speed into a residential street called Newtown Close.”

Police were called and 22-year-old Dodds was traced an hour later.

“He was aggressive, refused a drug search and used “choice language”.

Dodds threatened to spit at officers, and did spit inside a police vehicle cage.

“Apart from all the language, I do note half a dozen times he inserts the word ‘sausage’ into the dialogue, apropos of nothing,” said Mr Burke.

“It does appear he was labouring under some kind of illusion, whether that was as a result of drug ingestion or what he himself refers to as a pre-exiting mental illness, it is difficult to say.”

Dodds kicked out at one PC, striking his arm, and then bit the hand of another - not breaking the skin but causing a teeth imprint and reddening.

When later asked why he had driven in the manner he did, he replied “because he had felt like it”.

Dodds, of Croft Court, Wigton, admitted seven crimes, including dangerous driving, assaulting emergency workers and driving otherwise than in accordance with a licence.

David Wales, defending, said Dodds was a father to young children and a diagnosed schizophrenic whose condition was exacerbated when exposed to stress and substance use.

Recorder Ciaran Rankin jailed Dodds for 16 months, and lambasted his bad driving. He said: “Whilst not within school hours that does not mean there were not children coming and going with parents.”