Court last week to a string of charges including slapping two women, violently resisting arrest and drugs possession.

Senior Magistrate the Wor. Will Francis ordered a social inquiry report for Troy Raymond Rawlins, 32, after hearing he was on probation when he committed the offences. He adjourned the case to November 9 for sentencing and bailed him in the sum of $1,000 plus a like surety.

Prosecutor Insp. Peter Duffy told Magistrates Court that on the night of January 7 this year officers were at a derelict building in Hamilton in a known drugs supply area called Tills Hill.

They saw Rawlins looking nervous and holding what looked like drug packaging in his hand. When the officers tried to take him to Hamilton Police Station to search him he resisted arrest and hit an inspector in the face. Back-up helped take Rawlins to the Station where cocaine weighing .16 grams was found in a coat pocket.

Insp. Duffy said the first assault on a woman occurred on March 10. The woman had been in a fight with another woman over drugs.

Afterwards, as she was retrieving her belongings from the ground, Rawlins punched her in the eye, Insp. Duffy said.

Rawlins told the court the woman she had been fighting with was his wife and that he had only pushed her.

On March 22, Police officers on patrol near Elliott Street saw Rawlins and knew there was an arrest warrant out for him for non-appearance in court.

When they approached him he tried to get away and a fight ensued in which the officer and he fell to the ground. Rawlins kicked one of the officers in the groin, the other suffered abrasions about his body and a torn ligament in his knee.

The assault on the second woman occurred April 7 in the back of town area. A woman claimed Rawlins slapped her in the face after she asked a friend standing with him for a cigarette.

Rawlins told the court the woman had owed him money, and again he had only shoved her away.

Insp. Duffy said Rawlins had served time in prison for drugs offences but had no assault convictions.

He told the court he had not meant to assault the officers he had just been trying to get away.