A Devonshire man was remanded into custody this morning after he admitted violently resisting arrest, saying he was impaired at the time.

Marshall Wolffe, 25, also pleaded guilty to handling stolen goods and wilfully damaging a police-issued shirt in connection to the same incident that took place on Saturday.

The court heard that on May 19, George Smith realised that he had left his keys in his motorcycle, which was parked in Hamilton, but when he went to retrieve them they were gone.

He called on a company to retrieve the bike so that a new key could be fitted, but by the following morning the bike had been taken.

On Saturday, police received a report that the missing vehicle was parked near the Southside Police Station. Rather than collect the bike, the officers decided to observe it to see if anyone would come to retrieve it. After some time, they took the bike into the station, but continued to watch the area where it had been parked.

Later that evening, they noticed a motorcycle with two men stop nearby. The pillion passenger — later identified as Wolffe — got off the vehicle and began to search the area where the bike had been parked holding a set of keys in his hand.

An officer confronted Wolffe and began to escort him to the police station when the defendant struggled, gripping the officer hand and attempting to kick him.

Both men fell to the ground, with the struggle continuing until the officer used Captor spray on the defendant.

During the altercation the officer suffered an injury to his knee and his shirt was stained with blood.

After pleading guilty to the offences, Wolffe explained that he was heavily intoxicated when the incident took place, claiming that he had no idea the man grabbing him was a police officer.

“I thought my life was in danger,” he said. “Once I knew it was an officer I laid on the ground.”

He also denied stealing the motorcycle, saying on the night of the incident he was only trying to get a ride home and offering to tell police who had given him the keys.

Magistrate Archibald Warner ordered a Social Inquiry Report and a drug assessment on Wolffe, remanding him into custody until August 5 when he is set to return to the court for sentencing.

• It is The Royal Gazette’s policy not to allow comments on stories regarding criminal court cases. As we are legally liable for any slanderous or defamatory comments made on our website, this move is for our protection as well as that of our readers.