A MAN who threatened to put his mother on a bed of nails before attacking two police officers has been handed an 18-month prison sentence.

Gary Dawson was sentenced at Oxford Crown Court on Thursday after admitting one count of dangerous driving, two counts of battery and three counts of possessing an article with a blade or point on January 29.

Prosecutor Cathy Olliver said Dawson’s parents were at their Bicester home when they received texts messages from him, “threatening to put his mother on a bed of nails”, along with “religious ramblings”.

She said the 33-year-old, who lived with his parents in Isis Avenue, Bicester, before the incident, later started banging on his parents’ door and shouting through the letter box.

The prosecutor said Dawson’s mother then heard a car “screeching off” followed by a loud bang when he drove into another car. Miss Olliver said the defendant later travelled to his cousin’s home in Herald Way, Bicester, where he banged and kicked the door, alarming family members who called the police.

She said officers found Dawson at Bicester’s St Edburg’s Church, where they tried to handcuff him but he “struggled”, punching an officer before grabbing hold of their throat.

Miss Olliver told the court he then squeezed another police officer “tightly around the neck” before they found a hunting knife and two lock knives in his car.

She said the defendant was taken to the Horton General Hospital after officers became concerned with his “erratic” behaviour, which included calling them “Lucifer” and “fake”.

Miss Olliver said he was then detained under the Mental Health Act after trying to run away from the Banbury hospital.

Defence barrister Claire Fraser told the court Dawson was “undiagnosed” at the time of the offence. She added: “This was an acute psychotic episode. At the time he was not thinking with a straight mind.”

Judge Ian Pringle said: “You say you have no memory really of what you were doing and what you said on that day and I accept that.”

Dawson, of no fixed abode, was handed a nine-month restraining order preventing him from visiting his parents’ home.

He was also disqualified from driving for two years.