A POLICEMAN convicted of an off-duty attack on a uniformed officer answering a noise complaint has lost his job, a court was told.

Richard Lee Grayson, 35, was found guilty last month of assaulting PC Dennis Thompson, causing him actual bodily harm, in the back yard of a house in Murton, County Durham.

Durham Crown Court was told that PC Thompson and a colleague were answering a neighbour's complaint over noise from a house in Doxford Terrace South, in the early hours' of Good Friday last year. Grayson, from Gateshead, was said to have intervened when the householder was being arrested by the officers for causing a breach of the peace, emerging from the back door of the property to try to talk them out of the arrest.

But things turned violent, and in a struggle that followed he was said to have repeatedly punched PC Thompson, causing him facial, neck and back injuries, for which he is still off work.

Grayson, who was injured himself after being hit by PC Thompson and a colleague over the head with batons, was arrested while receiving medical treatment.

When he was convicted four weeks ago, Northumbria Police said Grayson would remain suspended until sentencing.

But when the 35-year-old returned to be sentenced yesterday, his barrister, Tim Gittins, told the court: "He knew it was inevitable that his career of 17 years, including service in the RAF and as a police officer, had come to an end.

"To save any disciplinary hearing and any time and money that would cost, he resigned from the force yesterday, and that has consequences through a loss of a significant wage as an acting sergeant and any pension rights he may have accrued as well."

But the court was told he also has a conviction, dating from 1998, for dangerous driving when he led police on a chase while on a motorbike.

Imposing a 240-hour community punishment order, with £750 costs, Judge Denis Orde told Grayson: "It's always sad to see a man who has been appointed to uphold law and order in the community sitting in the dock in a criminal court answering for doing quite the opposite, taking part in a common brawl."