A university student who was angry because he was not getting answers to questions from police officers in Falmouth while they drove him to custody at Camborne spat at one of them.

The spittle landed on her neck and head and also on the car seat in front of him.

At Truro’s magistrates’ court William Henry Nowell, age 20, of Eton Avenue, Plymouth, pleaded guilty to assaulting PC Michelle Thompson by spitting at her, damaging a seat of a police car, and possessing cannabis.

Alison May, for the CPS, said officers had gone to the Vanilla Night Club on The Moor in Falmouth because of an allegation of damage inside caused by Nowell, and he was arrested on suspicion, although nothing later came of it.

Put in a police car, he called the female officer a “bitch” and said: “You’ll lose your job over this.”

One minute he was apologising and the next he was shouting and swearing and was clearly drunk.

The drug was found on him when he was searched. He had no previous convictions.

His solicitor John Evans said he was in his second year at Plymouth University, studying ocean science, hoping to become a hydrographic surveyor. He accepted that night he had drunk more than was good for him and had been angry at being arrested for causing damage he did not do.

“He felt it was unfair and unjustified,” he said.

On the journey in the police car he was asking what was going to happen and where he was being taken but felt he was getting no satisfactory answers and became frustrated and angry. He was extremely ashamed of his behaviour.

The case was adjourned for a probation report.