Jimale Hassan Abdullahi, 27, from Somalia was sentenced to three years and nine months in jail and fined €4,500 after pleading guilty before Magistrate Neville Camilleri to attacking and seriously injuring PC David Bezzina, who suffered a broken nose.

He admitted he was drunk and was sorry for what he had done.

In the past, he had already been jailed six months for attacking a policeman, another 18 months for assaulting an elderly man to rob him and a suspended jail term for assaulting a manager of the Marsa open centre.

Police inspector Robert Vella said the prosecution wanted an effective prison term of not less than four years and a fine of €4,000. He said that  assaults on the police were becoming more frequent.

Defence counsel Noel Bartolo said the policeman had provoked him by tearing up some of his papers but he was nevertheless sorry for his actions.

Magistrate Camilleri said assaults on the police was "unacceptable" so he sentenced him to three years and nine months in jail.

The police said this morning the incident happened at 2.20am when Mr Abdullahi entered the station and asked to speak to a police sergeant. PC Bezzina explained that the sergeant was not on duty and told the man he could speak to him instead.

Mr Abdullahi insisted on speaking to the sergeant, became aggressive, started shouting and attacked the PC Bezzina.

PC Bezzina called for help and when district police arrived they found the Mr Abdullahi shouting and acting in a violent manner inside the station. Member of the Rapid Intervention Unit also helped control the situation.

The suspect was arrested and taken to a health centre, where he was certified to be suffering from slight injuries.

The policeman was hospitalised but has since been released.

In a statement, Police Association reiterated its call for a substantial increase in the penalties for crimes against members of the force as the current ones did not serve as a deterrent.

This, the association said, was not acceptable in a civilised society.

It said that there was no insurance policy to make good for damages suffered by members of the force and insisted that the penalties given for such crimes should reflect the gravity of an incident.

The General Workers' Union's Police Officers Union also condemned the aggression shown on the policeman and said that in sensitive stations such as Marsa there should be more than one officer.