A POLICEMAN'S son was fined for swearing and insulting police officers during a night of disturbances at Haxby.

Nicholas Martyn Welburn, 20, of Meadow Lane, Haxby, whose mother, Margaret, has spearheaded attempts to get bored teenagers off the streets of the town, accused one officer of having a vendetta against him.

He had denied using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour, but was found guilty and fined £175 with £125 costs by York magistrates.

Welburn, who had a previous conviction for assault, was told by the chairman of the bench, Mr Alf Peacock: "Haxby seems to becoming more like Dodge City than anything else."

Welburn was arrested when he swore at PC John Wearmouth who had gone to the Ryedale Court shopping precinct on the night of October 17 after reports of 20 to 30 youths causing a disturbance.

PC Wearmouth said: "It was the most volatile situation I've come across in two years working at Strensall. It stands out very, very vividly in my memory."

He said Welburn, who arrived on the scene after the police officers turned up, shouted at him, and was swearing and insulting officers.

"I didn't want the situation to escalate. In my opinion, Mr Welburn's conduct would incite further violence," he said.

Welburn, who was not represented, denied he had been swearing. When prosecutor Angela Smith accused him of trying to incite the crowd, he said: "I wouldn't say something like that, my father's a police officer."

Mrs Smith asked him if he was accusing the officer of perjury, and Welburn said 'yes'.

He said: "It seems PC Wearmouth has, perhaps, got a vendetta against me."

Matthew Newbold, 22, of Burnholm Drive, York, who was arrested on the same night, was found guilty of the same offence, and Nigel James Porteus, 22, of South Lane, Haxby, admitted the same charge.

The court was told that Newbold had been arrested by Sgt Bright after another officer had twice asked him to leave the scene and after he had twice sworn at officers.

Newbold, who admitted he had sworn once at the officers, complained about the way he was arrested.

"I was grabbed by Sgt Bright, thrown on the floor against the telephone box, dragged across the floor with his arm around my neck and placed in the back of the police van."

Sgt Bright said he remembered Newbold had struggled, but could not recall if he had fallen to the floor. Mrs Smith said that Porteus had been arrested after swearing at officers and it was only when he was grabbed by the police dog that he stopped resisting arrest.

Newbold was fined £100 and ordered to pay £125 costs, Porteous was fined £100 and all three were bound over to keep the peace for two years in the sum of £250.

Speaking to the Evening Press after the case, Welburn said he was innocent and felt he had been treated unjustly.

* Wayne Hill, 23, of Eastfield Avenue, Haxby, was bound over to keep the peace in the sum of £100 by York magistrates last month in connection with the same incident.

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