was in the Christmas spirit when he appeared before her in court yesterday.

Shane Dwayne Dillas pleaded guilty to offensive behaviour in a public place, and resisting arrest, but complained that he had been provoked.

Dillas was seen in a fight by patrolling Police officers near the Swinging Doors Bar on Court Street at 1 a.m. on December 17, said Sergeant Rex Osborne, prosecuting.

The officers got out of their car to separate the two men, and the accused was led away by the bar's doorman. He returned, shouting offensive words and behaving threateningly, and was arrested.

Sgt. Osborne reported that Dillas struggled so violently, that he banged his head on the pavement, sustaining a cut.

Dillas had a record of using offensive words and causing wilful damage, said Sgt. Osborne.

"I came minding my own business, and they jumped on me, and that was the way things went,'' Dillas told Magistrate the Wor. Charles-Etta Simmons.

He explained that he had left to go to a Christmas party, and he was pushed and jumped on by two men, neither of whom had been charged.

"Seeing as it's near Christmas, and I'm in the Christmas spirit, I'll bind you over for 12 months in the sum of $500 to keep the peace and be of good behaviour,'' Mrs. Simmons told him.