A man who stood on the main road opposite Temple Meads station and threw punches at people walking past has been detained indefinitely.

It took eight police officers to eventually restrain Paul Holder after he set upon the two who initially answered the 999 calls from worried members of the public, and bit one so hard he punctured his skin on his arm.

The 40-year-old was walking up and down the side of the A4, from the Sidings pub to the Bath Road Bridge roundabout, punching people who came near him and trying to start fights.

He was telling people he had left someone dead in a flat in Knowle, and was seen to be behaving irrationally, Bristol Crown Court heard.

He punched a member of staff at The Sidings who went out to check on a colleague, and he also attacked several other people

Two officers were initially called to deal with Holder that evening, at around 6.15pm on November 2 in 2018, but the first to approach him, PC Boodney, was attacked and put in a headlock, the court heard.

Prosecuting, Emily Heggardon, said his colleague PC Finlayson managed to come to his assistance. “When they first approached Mr Holder, he was coming towards them with his fists up like a boxer would,” she said.

The Sidings pub at Temple Gate

She added eye witnesses described the ensuing struggle as ‘extremely violent’, and at one point PC Finlayson had to deploy his Pava spray.

One officer hit the emergency button on his radio to call for back-up and it eventually took eight officers to restrain Holder, who was of no fixed abode at the time, and get him into the back of the police van.

During the struggle, Holder bit down so hard on PC Boodney’s bicep that it drew blood and the police officer had to be treated by paramedics and admitted to hospital.

Holder pleaded guilty to one count of ABH, three assaults and a further charge of assaulting a police officer while resisting arrest.

He also pleaded guilty to, while he was on remand in prison, throwing a cup of his own urine over a prison officer who had come to his cell to give him breakfast.

After a series of different court orders and different levels of secure mental hospitals in the year since his arrest, Holder was sent to Broadmoor secure hospital, from where he appeared in court via videolink, alongside his clinical psychiatrist, Dr Sanra Singh Gupta.

The psychiatrist’s report on Holder said he was suffering from intense paranoid delusional ideations, made worse by alcohol consumption and marked by outbursts of violence.

The Bath Road Bridge roundabout, at Temple Meads, the scene of Holder's arrest. It took eight officers to detain him

The consultant said Holder has recently been diagnosed with suffering from Huntingdon’s Disease, which was the likely cause of his mental illness.

The court heard he had 37 previous convictions for 120 offences, dating back 20 years, many of which were for violence.

Dr Singh Gupta’s report recommended Holder be made the subject of a Section 37 Hospital Order, with the additional imposition of a stricter Section 41 Detention Order under the Mental Health Act.

Rupert Russell, defending, questioned the need for the more restrictive order but Dr Singh Gupta told the judge it would be necessary, mainly because his Huntingdon’s Disease was only going to get worse and more unpredictable.

Judge Euan Ambrose made both orders, detaining Holder indefinitely under both Section 37 and Section 41 of the Mental Health Act.
