A PATIENT launched a violent attack on his GP before biting a police officer.

Joel Pringle, 20, of Western Close, Buttershaw, told Dr Imran Mehboob he would “f***ing punch” him before unleashing the assault during an appointment at Wibsey Medical Centre last year.

Bradford Crown Court heard Pringle visited the surgery, on Fair Road, on the morning of June 18 last year.

During that appointment, he became “angry and frustrated” at the advice he was given, before making the expletive-laden threat to punch Dr Mehboob.

He followed through on his words, raining two blows on the doctor and causing him to fall to the floor.

Pringle then attempted to assault him again, but, in due course, was detained.

At one point, Pringle’s mother, who had attended the appointment with her son, attempted to stop him, but he forced his way past her.

When arrested, he then bit a police officer, leaving a red mark measuring two inches by two inches.

Abigail Langford, for Pringle said he accepted he had lost his temper and there was a “clear and significant” background to his behaviour.

She said he demonstrated remorse to the probation service, but he is reluctant to engage any further.

In sentencing, Judge Jonathan Rose said Pringle had experienced trauma when he was younger and the consequences were still being felt, but there was an “ambivalence” towards those who would offer assistance.

“Those who work in the health service are vulnerable people exposed to the temper of people like you, disappointed rightly or wrongly, with what is said to them by practitioners,” the judge said.

“They seem to think it’s alright to take out their anger on that individual.”

“That is very, very wrong,” he added.

He told Pringle that the law had changed since he had committed the offence to further protect emergency workers.

The judge described Pringle’s actions as a “violent assault”, which meant Dr Mehboob had needed surgery, and there was no alternative to an immediate prison sentence.

He said. "This GP was doing what he could to help you.

"You were unable to control your temper."

Pringle, who has no previous convictions aside from a caution, pleaded guilty at magistrates' court to assault occasioning actual bodily harm and assaulting a police constable.

Taking into account his early guilty pleas, Pringle was jailed for a total of eight months.

A restraining order will also be made.

Judge Jonathan Rose warned him that if there was a repeat of the offence, "the sentence would be measured in years, not months".