Bolton Crown Court: Naked man bit Kearsley police officers

A jogger had been out in Kearsley more than four years ago when she heard shouting before 43-year-old Mark Campbell came up to her.

Bolton Crown Court heard how he had ben “ranting to himself” when he came across the jogger.

The prosecution said: “He was around five metres away from her, completely naked, making no effort to hide his genitals.”

He told the court how the woman ran to a nearby house but received no reply after knocking on the door.

She then ran to her own home she asked for help from her partner, an off-duty police officer.

Campbell was then banging on other doors while still naked saying: “I need to come in.”

Police were called and tried to arrest Campbell who made “growling noises” before biting one of the officers on the thumb and threatening to bite the others.

He was then taken to hospital where he later tried to bite another officer’s face before biting him on the bicep.

Campbell, of Kings Road, Old Trafford, was sectioned under the mental health act before being brought to Bolton Crown Court this week for sentencing, just over four years on from his initial offences.

He had previously pleaded guilty to exposure and assaulting emergency workers.

But in February this year Campbell also received a sentence of 40 weeks, suspended for two years, for production of cannabis.

Niamh McGinty, defending, argued that Campbell deserved credit for his guilty pleas and added that he had made huge progress since the events of January 2019.

She said: “We are now four years on from these offences.

“He was not in his right mind, he was as he was for most of his life smoking large quantities of cannabis daily.”

Ms McGinty told the court that Campbell wished to offer his apologies through her and that he had shown real remorse in the time since.

She said: “He hopes to find his way back to the world of employment.”

Judge Nicholas Clarke KC said that he accepted Campbell was “in the middle of a psychotic episode brought on by drugs.”

Addressing the defendant, he said: “It isn’t really clear what was going on in your mind.”

But he reminded the court of the effect his actions had had on others, in particular the police officers who had been sent to the scene.

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Judge Clarke said: “I particularly note the way the officers commendably and professionally tried to deal with you.”

Judge Clarke gave Campbell a curfew rather than an immediate prison sentence.

He said: “This way I’m depriving you of your liberty but at your own and your family’s expense rather than that of the public.”

Judge Clarke hit Campbell with a 12-month community order, on top of his earlier suspended sentence, and a two-month curfew which will confine him to his home between 9pm and 7am.