AN ASPIRING actor bit the hip of a police officer while he was being arrested for being abusive, Swindon magistrates heard.

Alexander Bennett, who has just finished working on a TV series about Richard III, was ordered to pay a total of £700 compensation to five victims, including three police officers, after a series of incidents last summer.

Bennett, 28, of Eastcott Hill, Swindon, admitted one count of assaulting police, three of causing criminal damage, a common assault, using threatening words of behaviour, obstructing police, being drunk and disorderly and a racially aggravated charge of using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour.

He was convicted at an earlier trial of assaulting a PC by biting him on the leg.

Prosecutor Vyvyan Thatcher said police were called to Old Town on June 14 where Bennett was being abusive to members of the public.

He approached a woman doing promotional work and kissed her on the cheek. When challenged by her, he swore.

When police arrived he was aggressive with a PCSO was trying to calm him.

They arrested him and in the struggle Bennett bit an officer’s hip, drawing blood.

On September 8 he damaged a sign at the Da Paulo Eatalian delicatessen. Approached by a shopkeeper he replied: “Do you want some as well?”

Bennett then attacked a sign outside the Rolleston pub. When arrested he damaged the police van door by kicking it repeatedly.

Finally, at 1.40am on September 23, police responded to reports of a man banging on the window of a shop. When they arrived they found the paramedics who had been treating him, but he had run away.

They found him in Spring Gardens, carrying a can of alcohol. During the arrest he bit a PC’s finger and called another a “Greek immigrant.”

Caroline Williams, for Bennett, said he had been dealing with stressful situations over the last couple of years. He had found out his father was suffering from cancer and a friend he had considered as a brother had died.

As a child he was diagnosed with ADHD but at 18 was told he no longer had it and was taken off medication.

She told the court he trained as a lifeguard and then joined the fire service for a while.

But he had a new career as an extra and was landing more significant roles rather than just being someone in the background.

“It is something that he is very, very enthusiastic about,” she said.

He did not have a job but had just finished working on a TV series.

“His career seems to be going in a very good direction at the moment. Despite everything that has been going on it has kept him, to some extent, on the right track,” she said.

Bennett was given an 18-month community order. The magistrates also ordered him to £200 compensation to the officer whose hip was bitten, £100 for the finger bite, £100 to the woman he kissed, £200 to the Da Paulo delicatessen and £100 for the racial abuse.

He was also told to pay £300 towards prosecution costs.