Paul Parslow was sentenced for an incident at a Worcester PO

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Paul Parslow was sentenced for an incident at a Worcester post office

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A WORCESTER man has been given a suspended sentence for assaulting a member of staff and two police officers after he “threw a wobbly” in Worcester’s city centre post office.

Paul Parslow was sentenced to six months, suspended for a year, at Worcester Magistrates Court after the angry rampage in the post office on the first floor of WHSmith in the High Street on Friday, August 30.

The 37-year-old – who has only one leg and uses a wheelchair to get around – previously appeared in court on Monday, October 7, when he admitted assaulting a member of staff and two police officers, using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour towards another member of staff and possessing an offensive weapon in a public place.


Adrian Jones, prosecuting, told the court Parslow visited the shop at 2.20pm to withdraw money from his bank account but became angry when his card was rejected and swore loudly at staff.

On his way out of the shop he threw a fire extinguisher in the direction of a sales assistant before pulling down a display on the ground floor and police were called.

“One officer attempted to move Mr Parslow into the van he then punched her in the face with a clenched fist,” he said. When he arrived at the police station he had to be physically removed from the police van and spat at another officer.

“When he was interviewed he said the person behind the counter had grinned at him and he lost it and ‘threw a wobbly’,” he said “He agreed his behaviour was unacceptable.”

Judith Kenney, defending, said Parslow, of Back Lane South, Barbourne, could not recall the incident due to the side-effects of a range of medication he is required to take. “Mr Parslow knows that you won’t look at this in a very positive light,” she said.

“He is trying to lead an ordinary life with no carer and he felt humiliated.”

Describing Parslow’s actions as “wholly unacceptable”, district judge Nigel Cadbury sentenced him to two months in prison for assaulting the member of staff along with two months for possessing offensive weapons in a public place after three throwing knives, a catapult and a bag of ball-bearings were found in his bag, to run consecutively.

He was also sentenced to two months each for assaulting the two police officers and using threatening behaviour towards the other member of staff, to run concurrently with each other but consecutively with the previous sentences.

The prison term was suspended for 12 months.

He also imposed a 12-month supervision order and ordered him to pay £50 compensation to the member of staff he assaulted, £100 to the officer he punched and £50 to the officer he spat at.