A drug dealer who carried on selling heroin and cocaine on the streets suddenly turned nasty when police turned up at his home to arrest him – and found him fast asleep in bed. Thomas Rylands angrily spat in a policeman’s face and later, when he was in a cell, he threatened to stab anyone who came near him and hurled racial abuse at another officer, Hull Crown Court heard.
Rylands, 32, of Boxtree Walk, off Linnaeus Street, west Hull, but recently in custody on remand, admitted being concerned in supplying heroin and cocaine between March 4 and July 23. He also admitted assaulting a police officer as an emergency worker and racially aggravated harassment on July 23.
Billy Torbett, prosecuting, said that plainclothes police in Conway Close, west Hull, spotted Rylands in a hand-to-hand exchange with a known drug user on March 5. “When the defendant noticed them, he began to run and attempted to discard a mobile phone, which was recovered,” said Mr Torbett.
Rylands threw £110 cash to the ground. He was soon caught and arrested. He had another phone and £10 cash.
His home was searched and £180 cash was found as well as scales, three grinders and, from a handbag in the kitchen, £995 cash. Text messages on a phone indicated drug supply of heroin and crack cocaine at street level.
There were bulk advertising messages offering deals on sales, with 57 stored contacts. He was released on bail but, on June 9, Rylands was linked from phone data to offers advertising the sale of drugs, with bulk marketing messages.
On July 23, police went to his home and found him asleep in a bedroom. He was taken hold of and he woke up. He spat on a police officer’s forehead and, seconds later, he spat in his eyes. The officer said he was left feeling “degraded and dirty”.
Police found a mobile phone under the bed, a baseball bat near it, Pregabalin and other tablets and digital scales. When he was later in a police cell, he became abusive and aggressive and warned: “I will stab the next officer near to me.”
He shouted racial abuse at one officer. Rylands had convictions for 11 previous offences between December 2024 and September last year. They included five of assaulting police but none for drugs.
Oliver Shipley, mitigating, said that Rylands pleaded guilty at an early stage. “There is no good to be said about this package of offending,” said Mr Shipley.
“He makes no attempt to minimise the impact of his offending.” Father-of-four Rylands had been in a relationship at the time with a woman who was a drug user and he was introduced to Pregabalin and later crack cocaine.
“It has gripped him that hard that it has sent him spiralling down a path of self-destruction,” said Mr Shipley. “He is now clear. He is working with the drugs team.
“He is going to do everything he can to steer himself away from drug misuse. He has hope for the future and knows he has to work very hard going forward.”
Recorder Brian Whitehead said of the drug dealing: “You had a chance to cease but, unfortunately, you carried on while on bail. It is quite an unpleasant offence spitting in somebody’s face.”
Rylands was jailed for two-and-a-half years.
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