A TEENAGER has been sentenced to three weeks in prison after admitting assaulting a police officer and causing criminal damage.

John Ashley Kinsella appeared via video link at Newton Aycliffe Magistrates’ Court in County Durham today (NOV 2) to be sentenced.

The 19-year-old had previously admitted causing damage to a house on Farm Close in Bishop Auckland and breaking a bone in a policeman’s hand while being arrested.

The criminal damage occurred between August 6 and 9 and the assault PC on August 8.

Magistrates sentenced him to three weeks in prison for the assault PC charge and one week to be served concurrently for the criminal damage.

The court heard that he has been in custody for nine weeks however since being arrested for the offences.

The teenager, whose address is on Lowther Road in Bishop Auckland but before his arrest was living on Bessemer Street in Ferryhill, is also charged with three counts of arson on August 8.

He is chared with starting fires at Homebase in Bishop Auckland causing £500 worth of damage, nearby Iceland supermarket causing £2,146 worth of damage and at Aclet Nursery School on the town’s Woodhouse Close Estate causing damage worth £2,886.26.

No pleas were entered and magistrates remanded him in custody with a view to committing his case to Durham Crown Court on December 5.

He is due to appear again at Newton Aycliffe Magistrates’ Court on Friday, November 23.