MAGISTRATES jailed a man for eight weeks after hearing he burgled a college and carried out a dirty protest in police cells using his own faeces.

Police were landed with a £90 deep cleaning bill after Richard Lowe, 39, left filth in three cells at Gablecross Police Station, the Swindon bench heard yesterday.

As well as two charges of criminal damage, Lowe, of Cranmore Avenue, also admitted one charge of burglary with intent, two of shoplifting and another of attempted theft.

Prosecutor Keith Ballinger said Lowe was arrested after he was stopped by a security guard at Morrison’s in Swindon on January 23 after he was seen taking bottles of alcohol off the shelves and putting them in a bag he had pulled out of his jacket.

Police were called and he was taken to custody at Gablecross. After arrival he was escorted to a telephone booth to call a solicitor, but he became verbally aggressive, spitting on the glass and threatening to bite the detention officer.

Then he kicked out, smashing the door of the booth.

“While in custody he has carried out what is effectively a dirty protest in three cells,” Mr Ballinger told the court.

Lowe urinated all over the walls and floor of his cell and had to be moved to another. He then smeared his own faeces over that. Taken to a third cell he repeated the act.

“That resulted in those three cells having to be deep cleaned,” said the prosecutor who asked for £90 compensation for the clean and £375 for the damage to the booth.

Three days later he was caught shoplifting in TK Maxx, having pocketed four pairs of earrings.

And on February 7 he was discovered in the cash office of New College. Two staff members went investigate after seen an unknown man in the staff only corridor to the office. “They described hearing the noise of filing cabinets being opened.”

When they got into the office they challenged Lowe, who claimed he was lost and was looking to apply for a job at the sports centre.

Lowe, who had recently been released from prison for a burglary offence, had 124 theft-related offences on his record.

Emma Handslip, for Lowe, said: “This is somebody who is in crisis.”

He needed assistance from probation and drug rehabilitation services in the community and although he had gone straight to appointments with them following his release he felt he had been let down by them since.

Drug workers were unwilling to work with him formally because his life was chaotic, but they had volunteered to help him one to one.

She explained he was well-known in custody. Because of previous markers against his name he was strip-searched and handcuffed into the cell.

“He felt like he was being treated like an animal so, unfortunately, he behaved like one,” said Ms Handslip.

Lowe was jailed for a total of eight weeks and ordered to pay £85 court costs and a £115 victim surcharge. No order for compensation was made because of the prison sentence.