A violent offender who a court heard flew into a fit of rage and ?split open? a Police officer?s head with a machete was today starting a seven year jail sentence.

P.c. Shawn Broomes needed staples to close a six-inch head wound after he was called to a domestic argument involving Terry Eugene Thomas.

A court heard how P.c. Broomes tussled with Thomas at the scene of the Somerset dispute. The defendant was carrying a machete, Crown counsel Wayne Caines said, and as the officer backed away he fell over a cycle and hit the floor.

The officer then grabbed Thomas? legs ? and the defendant, who had already smashed a TV and two mirrors in the house in a row with his wife, fell to his knees.

Mr. Caines said the defendant continued to swing the machete at the officer, before slashing his head with the two-foot long weapon.

As the pair continued to struggle, Police called for urgent back-up. Another officer, P.c. Corville Hylton approached the struggle but Thomas told him to get out of his yard. The court heard he then began ?running towards him with the machete.?

Mr. Caines said that P.c. Hylton felt he was not equipped to deal with the threat posed, so he raced from the house.

However, Thomas pursued P.c. Hylton as he ran past another officer. This led to both officers getting chased down a 60-metre driveway onto Sound View Road. Thomas pursued P.c. Hylton down Sound View Road before fleeing through a nearby private yard.

Bleeding P.c. Broomes, 32, was taken to hospital for treatment for the head wound, small cuts to the arm, cuts to both shoulders and bruised ribs. Staples were needed to close the head wound, added Mr. Caines.

Violence flared in Somerset last summer when Police responded to a report of a domestic dispute at the defendant?s home on Sound View Road.

Thomas? wife said that just before officers arrived she told her husband they had to talk ? to which the defendant shouted back ?talk, talk.?

Mr. Caines said Thomas followed his wife into the bedroom and pulled the TV from the shelf, smashing it on the floor. The defendant then followed his wife into the bathroom and smashed two mirrors.

?The defendant then left the house saying that he was going to burn the house down,? said Mr. Caines, who told the sentencing hearing that Thomas returned and ?poured a liquid substance on the floor?. The court heard the defendant?s children were in the house when those incidents happened.

Thomas left the house again, but later returned and confronted P.c. Broomes with the machete while shouting: ?get out of my yard? before the officer was injured in the struggle.

The incident happened on August 14, 2005 just before 10.30 p.m. When interviewed, Thomas told Police he regretted what he had done and said the officer did not deserve to be injured.

Mr. Caines told Puisne Judge Carlisle Greaves that the uniformed officer had his head ?split open? by the defendant and had been left with a scar. There was no provocation, he added.

Charles Richardson, for Thomas, 48, said his client was enraged after an argument with his wife about their finances.

He said the initial wound was intended for another man, who he described as a ?friend in a red shirt?, and the Police officer was injured accidentally.

The other attacks stemmed from that, and Mr. Richardson said it was then that Thomas acted ?completely out of character, adding that there was no malice towards Police. Thomas has written to the officer to apologise.

?The defendant is a level-headed man,? said Mr. Richardson. ?He lost his head for a minute and afterwards he admitted he had done wrong.

?He did not realise the full extent of what he was doing in the midst of a spontaneous fit of rage.?

The lawyer also said that his client denied carrying a machete and maintained he had been carrying a piece of flat metal in his right hand when the attack took place.

Mr. Justice Greaves, sentencing Thomas to seven years, said a message needed to be sent to the community that such behaviour would not be tolerated by the courts. Branding the attack ?arrogant?, he said Police officers must feel confident carrying out their duties.

Thomas will go on anger management courses in jail, the court heard. The judge ordered that he must spend no less than half the seven years behind bars.

In August, Thomas changed his plea and admitted wounding P.c. Broomes with intent to do grievous bodily harm, assaulting another Police officer and possessing an offensive weapon ? a metal pipe. He denied having a machete in a public place and another charge of assaulting a third officer.

They remain on file.