While awaiting trial for setting a man on fire, Joshua Strickland admitted kicking a police officer in the face.

The 29-year-old injured the officer on April 23, after his arrest at the end of a major manhunt.

He had been brought to Fulford Road Police Station to be questioned over his part in the incident in Fossway, off Malton Road, where Strickland and another man sprayed a third man with flammable liquid and set it alight.

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Strickland, of no fixed address, denied assaulting a police emergency worker on the day he first appeared before York Magistrates' Court charged with the Fossway incident and his case was listed for trial.

But on the day of the trial at York Magistrates' Court, he changed his plea.

His defence solicitor Liam Jackson said he had been under “mental stress” when he did the kick.

Deputy district judge Nicholas Haynes heard that the kick made a cut on the side of the police sergeant’s face.

He decided the offence was so serious it merited a three-month prison sentence, which Strickland served while on remand for the Fossway incident.

Just over a week into that sentence, he was back before York Magistrates' Court to answer a charge of having cannabis on him when arrested on April. He pleaded guilty and was given a six-month conditional discharge.