A GRIEF-STRICKEN man, who went drinking after the death of his grandmother, knocked a constable to the ground as he escaped from a police van, a court heard.

Officers were called to the Woolpack pub in Keighley after David Bland, 26, refused to leave following an incident, prosecutor David Lampitt told Bradford Crown Court.

They told Bland to leave the area, but he returned and was arrested and placed in the police van, only to escape.

Bland surrendered to police nine hours later at his home in Millfields, Silsden. He was charged with escape and assaulting a police constable.

Recorder Jonathan Sandiford said police are entitled to protection. But he said Bland had been drinking because of grief at the loss of his grandmother.

Sentence was deferred until May.