A MAN who threatened to eat a police officer and warned he had previously broken the jaws of three other constables has been jailed for 15 months.

Patrick Wallace had just been released early from a 10 month prison sentence when he was arrested in Galashiels town centre following an incident in a public house.

But in the cells at Galashiels Police Station the 40-year-old became aggressive and made the threats towards officers, Selkirk Sheriff court was told on Tuesday.

Fiona Caldwell, prosecuting, described how Wallace told one officer he would eat him and boasted that he had broken the jaws of three police officers. He also claimed he had served 14 years in jail for murder.

During a police interview he knocked a cup of water across the room and had to be returned to his cell and locked up.

Wallace, who is serving a prison sentence on another matter and whose last known address was in Innerleithen, pleaded guilty to a charge of assault by threats at Galashiels Police Station last June.

But a not guilty plea to assaulting a man to his severe injury and permanent disfigurement in High Street, Galashiels, on the same evening was accepted by the Crown.

Defence lawyer Ross Dow said they were "empty threats" and that Wallace had been on a nine-hour drinking session and that it was the alcohol talking.

But Sheriff Valerie Johnston highlighted that Wallace had been making threats to police officers after being released early from jail and that he had previous convictions for violence.