POLICE faced a barrage of intimidation and foul language when they were called to a disturbance at the rear of a Stretham pub last month. Teenager Dominic Hutter – who admitted taking cannabis and drinking alcohol before the incident – tried to prise pol

POLICE faced a barrage of intimidation and foul language when they were called to a disturbance at the rear of a Stretham pub last month.

Teenager Dominic Hutter - who admitted taking cannabis and drinking alcohol before the incident - tried to prise police away from a man about to be arrested, and was one of the main culprits during the fracas, a court was told.

Appearing before Ely magistrates on Thursday, 19-year-old Hutter complained that police had acted unprofessionally, and had singled him out: "Police took everything too seriously that night," he added. "There was a lot of swearing going on, not just from me."

During the incident Hutter, of Top Street, Stretham, had refused to take a fixed penalty of �80.

On Thursday he admitted using threatening behaviour likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress, and was fined �150 with �95 costs and a �15 surcharge.

Officers arrived at the rear of the Red Lion at 2.40am on Saturday, June 13 to find a large group of drunken people; they could also smell cannabis, said prosecutor Angela Sassoli.

"The group tried to interfere with the police arresting other people," she said. "They were swearing constantly and trying to intimidate them."

The group was asked to leave, but they carried on shouting foul and abusive language.

When a man was about to be arrested, Hutter put his body between that man and the police, and tried to prise the police away, said Mrs Sassoli.

"He stood square in the face of the officer in an intimidating fashion," she added. "This was an aggressive action."

After arrest, Hutter told police he was upset by the continual harassment of people in Stretham. He denied swearing, claiming he used the same words as the police, and denied shoulder barging an officer.

"He said he was trying to help police calm his brother down," added Mrs Sassoli. "He refused the fixed penalty because he did not think he had done anything wrong. He denied being drunk, and said that cannabis "chilled him out.