A man who was so drunk he could not remember head-butting a car or punching a police officer was jailed for six months.

Ivan Galea, 34, of Valletta pleaded guilty to slightly injuring a police officer when he punched him in the neck.

The police officer tried to stop Mr Galea, who was drunk, while he was head-butting a car in St Julians in 2007.

Mr Galea turned round and punched the officer.

Mr Galea pleaded guilty to assaulting a police officer, disobeying his orders, slightly injuring him and damaging a car. He also pleaded guilty to breaching the peace and being drunk in public.

Mr Galea admitted he had been drinking for many hours before the incident and, in fact, did not even remember punching the policeman. All he could remember was being taken to the police station.

Magistrate Laurence Quintano took into consideration Mr Galea’s early guilty plea and that he had been following an alcohol rehabilitation programme. However, he pointed out that Mr Galea was a relapser and had a criminal record that was several pages long.

Also, Mr Galea had attacked a policeman for no reason at all and being drunk did not exonerate him, the court noted. “He chose to drink and no one else forced him to.” As a result, the accused was jailed for six months.