A 26-year-old man who punched his mother and spat on a police officer has been jailed for six months.

Aaron Lee Barnett refused to have a psychiatric report prepared, which had been recommended by his probation officer.

He pleaded guilty to common assault and assaulting a police officer.

Deputy High Bailiff Rachael Braidwood sentenced him to four months’ custody for the assault on his mother and two months for the police assault, to run consecutively.

We previously reported that police received a 999 call from Barnett’s mother on July 16, at 7.22pm.

She said that she had been attacked by her son and that he had been holding a knife.

She said she had left their address, at Peel Road in Douglas, after being punched by Barnett in the face several times.

The mother said that her nose was bleeding but that her son had not used the knife in any way.

Soon after, police then received a 999 call from Barnett himself.

He claimed that his mother had attacked him so he said he had punched her.

He then said he was ‘hearing voices’ before disconnecting the call.

Officers went to the scene and found Barnett walking, near to the Brown Bobby petrol station.

His mother was located and confirmed to have suffered facial injuries, including a bloody nose, which resulted in an ambulance being called.

A 12-inch kitchen knife was found at their address in the sink.

Barnett refused to be interviewed by police and while in custody began shouting, claiming he was being ‘treated like an animal’.

He then spat out with some of the spittle landing on the shirt and neck of an officer.

The court heard that he has a large number of previous convictions and previous mental health difficulties.

Defence advocate James Peterson said that Barnett’s probation officer had concluded that a psychiatric report should be prepared before sentencing.

However, Mr Peterson said that Barnett would not co-operate with this and had refused permission to obtain his medical records.

The advocate entered a basis of plea on behalf of his client, reiterating that the knife had not been used, and this was accepted by the prosecution.

Mr Peterson said: ‘Mr Barnett is a man who has been before the court on numerous occasions and has significant personal difficulties.

‘He did initially make a complaint that his mother had attacked him but he has accepted that she didn’t, and he was the aggressor.

‘He told the police where the knife was. The injuries were relatively minor and there were no lasting injuries.’

The advocate asked for credit to be given for his client’s guilty pleas and said that Barnett had lost his temper on both occasions, and had lashed out.

Deputy High Bailiff Ms Braidwood told the defendant: ‘This was a nasty incident. It would have been an extremely frightening and traumatic incident for your mother.

‘Assaults on police officers are always treated as serious, and spitting is disgusting and won’t be tolerated.’

The Deputy High Bailiff said that she would normally have a psychiatric report to assist her in sentencing, but legislation did permit sentencing to proceed without one.

No order for prosecution costs was made in light of the immediate custodial sentence.