A sick toddler screamed and yelled as her father was hauled away by 12 Police officers after he illegally parked, Magistrates' Court heard yesterday.

Gregory Wright, 37, of Spicery Lane, Warwick, has denied using offensive behaviour toward a Police officer.

Wright -- who rushed to pick up his daughter from Little Lamb Nursery School on Dundonald Street in Pembroke and take her to hospital on March 14 -- said he threatened the officer because he showed no consideration for the situation.

Wright also denied assaulting a Police officer, resisting arrest and using an offensive weapon, a crash helmet.

But he pleaded guilty to the parking offence.

Wright, who was represented Mr. Mark Diel, told Senior Magistrate the Wor.

Will Francis the nursery telephoned him at work on the day of the incident to collect his daughter who was sick because they could not reach her mother.

Before he could leave work, Wright said, they called a second time.

"They said she wasn't breathing,'' he recalled.

He said he parked in a double loading zone, not on a double line, "although the tailgate might have been on the line''.

Wright said when he came out of the nursery a Police officer was writing up a ticket.

"I asked him to disregard the ticket because I had to take my daughter to the hospital,'' Wright said.

"There was no response from him when I told him I was taking her to the hospital,'' Wright said.

He said when the officer returned to the motorcycle, he got out of the car and slapped his ticket on the inside of the officer's motorcycle windshield.

But P.c. Philip Lewis told the court Wright threatened him with a crash helmet, after he was given a ticket for parking on a double line.

P.c. Lewis said the car was parked across the street from the Little Lamb Nursery, "in a dangerous manner''.

"Mr. Wright came from across the street with a crash helmet and a little girl in his arms,'' said the Police officer. "He shouted `What are you doing?' and was acting in a very agitated manner.'' P.c. Lewis said when Wright came to the car he told him his daughter was ill.

"It was still his responsibility to park his vehicle not in a manner that was dangerous,'' P.c. Lewis said, adding that he would have given Wright only a warning if "he had not continued to shout and scream''.

"After that I told Mr. Wright if you have a problem with the ticket take it to the Magistrate.'' He told the court Wright then threatened him with the child's crash helmet.

"I put the ticket on the car and walked back toward my motorcycle, '' P.c.

Lewis said.

At this point Wright had placed the little girl in the back of his car.

"As I got back to my motorcycle, Mr. Wright came up to me with the ticket in his hands and forcibly slapped it on to my windshield,'' P.c. Lewis said.

He followed Wright back to his car and told him it was an offence to refuse a ticket. But Wright again refused to take the ticket.

And the officer said Wright again threatened to hit him with the crash helmet.

Wright, under cross-examination by Police prosecutor Sgt. Rex Osborne, admitted that he threatened the officer with his crash helmet.

He said he was shouting at the officer because he wanted to know what was going to happen to his daughter.

But P.c. Lewis said he then told Wright he was under arrest for threatening a Police officer.

He said a dozen officers arrived as back-up when Wright refused to get out of the car.

With the aid of another officer, Wright was pulled from the car, and arrested.

He said it took two officers to place the handcuffs on Wright who was violently resisting arrest.

But Wright said he got out of his car peacefully and placed his hands behind his back to be handcuffed.

Wright said his daughter continued to cry and scream as Police officers put the handcuffs on him.

Police then passed the child to a woman standing nearby who they thought was a nursery employee.

"A lady from the nursery said she would try to get the mother,'' P.c. Lewis said. "At this point no one indicated the nature of the illness.'' But after Mr. Diel noted that the woman who was given the child was not an employee of Little Lamb Nursery, but a complete stranger, P.c. Lewis admitted: "Maybe I should have checked on the final outcome of the child.'' He also admitted he had not known that a ticket could not be unserved, once it had been served.

The trial resumes on July 20 before Senior Magistrate the Wor. Will Francis.