A MAN has been jailed after punching a police officer during a violent incident involving several others in Brynmawr last year.

Damien Jones, aged 32, of Vincent Avenue in Nantyglo, was part of a group which left three Gwent police officers with injuries. He denied a charge of violent disorder but was found guilty by a jury last year.

Jones was sentenced to three years and one month in prison at Cardiff Crown Court on January 27.

Prosecutor James Wilson said officers were called to Brynmawr Market Square on June 16 after a robbery suspect believed to be armed with a hammer was spotted.

But when PC Christine Cook, PC Carrie Brookman and PC Glen Edmunds tried to arrest him, a crowd reacted angrily.

Members of a crowd of around 10 people filmed the officers, swore at them, and called them names including “pigs”, the court heard.

PC Cook wept in the dock as she told the trial how she decided to spray some of the “most aggressive” members of the crowd with PAVA spray [known as pepper spray].

After this she said a woman punched her in the face and was knocked to the ground. She was off work for three months as a result of her injuries.

When PC Cook’s colleague PC Edmunds pushed the woman away from her, he was punched by three men including Jones.

PC Maguire, of Gwent Police, said: “This was a crime that shocked not only the public but colleagues of the officers involved, the police are there to protect the public and it is unacceptable that officers were hurt while doing their job.”