A man has pleaded guilty to attempted murder after attacking police officers with a Molotov cocktail, hatchet, knife and wooden pole.
Alexander Dighton, 28, appeared at the Old Bailey on Friday, where he admitted 10 charges relating to the incident at Talbot Green police station in South Wales.
On January 31, Dighton was seen on CCTV arriving at the station, carrying a large pack and a long wooden pole.
He lit a fire bomb and threw it at a police van. When it failed to ignite, he poured the contents of a second bottle on the van bonnet and tried to set it on fire.
He used the pole to smash the van windows before turning on another police vehicle.
Dighton, from Llantrisant, Rhondda Cynon Taf, ignored orders from South Wales Police officers to drop his weapon and approached an officer saying: “I’m fed up, I’m done.”
The defendant, who was wearing body armour, was tasered and pepper sprayed to little or no effect.
He swung the pole at one officer, punched one in the head and stabbed another in the leg.
Two of the three injured officers were taken to hospital for treatment.
When he was arrested, Dighton said: “I have been damned from birth.”
He went on to admit his actions, saying he was motivated by an anti-government ideology.
During a hearing at the Old Bailey, Dighton declined the opportunity to be provided with a lawyer, despite being told the maximum sentence for some of the charges was life in prison.
He told Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb: “Authority is not my problem. It’s the use of authority which to me is the problem, the use of authority I have seen since I was 15, that’s my problem.”
The senior judge asked him again if he would like to delay the case so he could take legal advice.
The defendant replied: “That will be all right, thank you. I perfectly understand it.”
Dighton admitted the attempted murder of Detective Constable Jack Cotton, attempting to cause grievous bodily harm with intent to Sergeant Richard Coleman, assaulting Pc Joshua Emlyn and threatening Pc Stephanie Fleming with an adapted wooden pole.
He also pleaded guilty to the attempted arson of a police van, two counts of damaging police property and having an adapted wooden pole, a knife and a hatchet.
The court was told he had no previous convictions and there was a question whether he had Asperger syndrome or an autism spectrum disorder.
Dighton was remanded into custody to be sentenced on May 13.
