A 40-year-old homeless man has been jailed for one year and ten months after repeatedly punching a female police officer in the head after earlier trying to enter a plane at the Tyagarah airfield.
Paul Eleftheriou was sentenced in the Lismore District Court last week after being found guilty of assault a police officer in the execution of their duty causing actual bodily harm.
The court had heard that Eleftheriou had entered a plane at the Tyagrah airfield on 5 May but was confronted by employees, causing him to leave.
A short time later he was seen on the roadway on Gulgan Road Brunswick Heads.
At the time he was on the road and at risk of being hit by passing traffic.
Police approached him in an attempt to get him off the roadway but Eleftheriou resisted attempts to move him off the roadway and continued running down the roadway.
Outside Uncle Tom’s Pies he was approached by a female Police Officer who was attached to the Mullumbimby station.
Eleftheriou has immediately punched the female officer to the head on at least 5 or 6 occasions. The female officer has collapsed to the roadway and was assisted by passers-by.
The 40-year-old was detained and placed into the rear of a police truck by another officer with the assistance of members of the public.
He was convicted by a jury at the Lismore District Court in March and sentenced last week to jail.
He will be eligible for parole after one year and three months.
