CONVICTED (2024) | Alex Warren-Lean, born c. 1993, of no fixed abode but a most recent known address of Moorland Avenue, Plympton, Plymouth PL7 – battered a police dog with a rock.
Warren-Lean. who has a long history of violent crime dating back to his teenage years, was high on crack cocaine and other street drugs when he launched a ferocious assault on police dog Freddy and two officers
Appearing at Plymouth Crown Court, he pleaded guilty to possessing a prohibited weapon – namely a police Captor pepper spray – in Radnor Place, criminal damage to a door and affray on the evening of September 4, 2023.
He denied he had attempted to cause unnecessary suffering to PD Freddy or had caused grievous bodily harm to his handler by swinging the weapon at his head but was convicted on all counts by a jury.
During the trial the jury watched body-worn video footage from two police officers – Pc James Whitehead who was first on the scene and police dog handler Pc Andrew Parsons – which saw Warren-Lean react angrily from the moment they arrived.
Warren-Lean claimed at one point, when asked his name, that it was “Lucifer” and insisted he had been trying to safeguard a female “cousin” of his in a property who he believed had been slapped. However, the woman was not his cousin, merely a family friend, and residents of the property told police he had broken glass of a rear door to gain entry to the building, causing nearly £1,000 worth of damage.
As the officers attempted to arrest him for criminal damage he was seen to swing the jumper – which contained a rock he had placed there to break the glass of the rear door – at Freddy and then Pc Parsons, cracking down upon his head.
During the melee which followed, the jury were told Freddy bit Pc Whitehead’s legs instead of Warren-Lean, who by this stage had been able to snatch Pc Parsons’ Captor pepper spray and blast him in the face with it.
He was eventually taken to the ground but continued to violently struggle, despite having a boot cast on his lower leg for a fracture which he said was caused after he was attacked by two men.
Two members of the public went to the officers’ aid and held Warren-Lean who by this stage could be heard on the body-worn footage chanting gibberish.
Pc Parsons was later taken to Derriford Hospital where he was treated for a 5cm laceration to his head along with cuts and bruises. He later claimed the strike was “the worst pain I’ve ever felt – I’ve never been hit that hard in my life and I knew he had not hit me with a fist”.
Pc Whitehead gave evidence to the jury saying Warren-Lean was “quite erratic” adding that he presented “the highest level of aggression I’ve come across serving with the police”.
He told the jury that while in custody, Warren-Lean said “I was on my home turf with you coming towards me. I had a right to f*** you up”.
The court heard Warren-Lean had 35 previous convictions to his name for 60 offences, including theft, burglary, drug use, robbery, assaults and possession of an imitation firearm.
In mitigation, Warren-Lean’s advocate Michael Green said he client had not been taking his medication prescribed to treat his psychological disorders as he was homeless at that time. Since being remanded he has resumed his medication regime and had only had “three incidents” in prison over the last 10 months by comparison to far more when he was in prison the previous year.
Mr Green said that Warren-Lean had had a difficult upbringing and that while he had a “appalling record” he had spent “very little of his life not in prison”, adding that it was “one of the saddest records I’ve seen”. He noted a psychiatric report on his client which highlighted Warren-Lean was diagnosed with a personality disorder, mental health difficulties.
Sentencing Warren-Lean, Judge Davey KC also noted the psychiatric report and his lack of accommodation, that he was diagnosed as Asperger’s ASD at the age of 12 and had gone on to engage in “harmful poly-substance misuse” after first taking cannabis at the age of 12. He said he accepted reports which established that Warren-Lean had been diagnosed with personality disorders, mixed personality disorder with subtypes of emotional instability disorder and antisocial personality disorder.
He also noted how Warren-Lean had taken some unknown psychoactive substances and had smoked crack cocaine before the incident. He said it was clear Warren-Lean was “mentally disturbed at the time of the offence”.
Judge Davey KC noted the psychiatric assessment which stated that in the opinion of the Doctor who assessed him, the incident was caused by Warren-Lean’s “entrenched engagement in a negative lifestyle leaving him street homeless, drug dependant and with poor mental health.”
The report went on: “Anti-authority attitudes meant that this situation escalated very rapidly and violently with limited victim empathy or awareness from Mr Warren-Lean”.
The doctor cited Warren-Lean’s “extensive offending history” and the 30-year-old had “entrenched attitudes and beliefs that are supportive of violent behaviours and it appears he has become desensitised to violence, offending and antisocial behaviour”.
However, while stating that he did consider Warren-Lean to be dangerous within the meaning of the Criminal Justice Act Judge Davey KC said it was not necessary to extend the prison sentence.
Taking into account the aggravating and mitigating circumstances he handed Warren-Lean a total of a seven year jail term, explaining that he would serve two thirds before being released on licence. He also imposed an indefinite exclusion order which aimed to keep Warren-Lean away from Radnor Place.
Sentencing | seven-year custodial.