A Ferry Reach man was jailed for three months yesterday after Acting Senior Magistrate Carlisle Greaves took a hard line on assaulting Police officers.

?You think you can do what you like and when you get in here we?re going to treat you nicely,? Mr. Greaves told 20-year-old Justin Ingemann. ?Even me, I get caught up in the softness.?

The court heard that a plain-clothed Police officer was walking towards the Blue Juice bar on Bermuda House Lane around 2 a.m. on January 31. The officer noticed liquid trickling in the lane, and followed it to its source: Ingemann, who was urinating against a shop window.

Ingemann said the officer then grabbed him from behind, after identifying himself as a Police officer. ?I was wrong to hit him but he approached me in a manner that I had to defend myself,? he told Mr. Greaves.

Ingemann repeatedly punched the officer in the face, knocking him to the ground before leaving the scene and walking towards Front Street.

The officer also got up and began walking towards Front Street. Outside the bar The Beach, he spotted the defendant, and stopped a passing Police car for help. Ingemann, however, took off at a run up Parliament Street towards the Hamilton Police station.

He was detained outside the Police station, and escorted inside. The officer suffered severe bruising and swelling to his right eye, and scratches around his left. Apologising to the officer and the court, Ingemann blamed the incident on his bad temper, and added imprisonment would not solve anything. ?It don?t make it no better, your Honour,? he said.

However, reading through Ingemann?s history and antecedents, Mr. Greaves did not agree.

?Soft, soft, soft,? he said. ?You?ve even appeared before me. I used to be tough.?

He fined Ingemann a total of $750 on charges of using offensive words and offensive behaviour in a public place. On the third charge of assaulting a Police officer, he said: ?I?m going to lock you up for this. The man was on the ground and you beat him up some more,? he said, sentencing Ingemann to three months in jail. If we don?t protect them, who?s going to protect us??