Andrew Jeffery sentenced in a Caloundra court after kicking a police officer in the face causing her flesh to fall from her lip

A “belligerent” man was heard yelling “I’ll smash you” moments before he kicked a female police officer who was left with flesh falling from her mouth.

Andrew Jeffery will serve four months of a 12-month prison sentence after he kicked a police officer in the face. Picture: Social media.

A female police officer was left with flesh falling from her mouth after a “belligerent” man kicked her in the face during a drunken attack.

Police were attempting to arrest Andrew Jeffery regarding another matter at a residential address on June 25 when he became “aggressive and belligerent”.

It took the two police officers nine minutes to restrain Jeffery.

In body worn footage shown in court Jeffery was heard yelling, “I’ll smash you”, moments before kicking Senior Constable Susan Lowndes, 50, in the face.

The officer was thrown a metre backwards.

Police prosecutor Brendan Newman told the court the officer suffered a cut on the inside of her upper lip that needed three stitches, a fractured nose, swelling and bruising and tendon damage to one of her arms because of the kick.

“Senior constable Lowndes was required to keep hold of her lip as a chunk of flesh kept falling from her mouth if she didn’t hold her lip,” Sergeant Newman said.

“Due to the nature of the injury the hospital used minimal anaesthetic as they stitched her lip up, essentially needed to stretch her lip to be able to get the stitches correctly in her lip.”

Sergeant Newman said the officer was forced to take time off work, significantly alter her lifestyle, and repeatedly replays the attack in her mind.

He said she had lost sleep because of the pain and was fearful of returning to general police duties and didn’t know how she would react when taking part in another forceful arrest.

Sergeant Newman provided a number of comparison cases that supported his suggestion of a period of actual imprisonment.

The court heard Jeffery had five pages of criminal history with like offending.

He pleaded guilty to two counts of obstructing police and one of assault of a police officer causing bodily harm.

Unrepresented, Jeffery said he was “sincerely sorry” for his actions.

“I was highly intoxicated at the time … if I was sober it wouldn’t have happened. I didn’t want it to happen the way it did,” he said.

Jeffery told the court he had started working for the first time in five years and was turning his life around when he kicked the officer.

He said it was scary watching the police footage and asked Magistrate Catherine Benson to suspend the prison sentence so he could continue getting his life back on track.

Jeffery said he had suffered a brain injury in 1987 and didn’t like confrontation.

Ms Benson said the serious nature of the assault took it beyond a suspended sentence.

She said she had no doubt Jeffery was sorry but said the behaviour was not tolerated by the courts.

Ms Benson also noted the ongoing impacts to the officer.

Jeffery was sentenced to a 12-month prison sentence.

He will be released on parole on January 15, 2022.