AN Arran man who was arrested and held in custody as he was due to fly off on holiday was attacked in a cell by a police officer, a court heard this week.

Michael Higgins was kicked within a cell in Paisley’s Mill Street police office, causing him to hit a wall and fall on to a bed, the town’s sheriff court heard.

Former Custody Sergeant Ian Clarke, 50, is currently on trial accused of assaulting Higgins, 48, within a cell at Paisley’s Mill Street police office on April 18, 2014.

Higgins, a plumbing and heating worker from Lamlash, was at Glasgow Airport with his wife on the day in question and was due to jet off on holiday.

But he was arrested after having a few drinks with his wife at the airport and was taken to the police station.

Higgins explained: “I was taken to a cell. I kept on asking where my wife was because she was on medication.

“She was left standing at Glasgow Airport alone with all the luggage. I kept shouting and pressing the buzzer. Nobody really attended, they were just telling me to be quiet all the time.

“I started doing stupid things in a bid to get their attention. I put clothing round my neck as if I was strangling myself.”

Higgins said he didn’t “remember much about it at all”, adding: “I’ve got a terrible memory. It was two-and-a-half years ago - I’ve completely blocked it from my mind.”

But, under questioning from Procurator Fiscal Depute Frank Clarke, prosecuting, he said he remembered giving a statement to police.

He said the statement was given at his home in Arran’s Murray Cresent on April 29, 2014, and that he would have been telling the truth to officers at the time. And he said the events of the day in question were fresh in his mind at the time, as it was only 11 days after he had been in the cell.

Some of the statement was read to the court.

In it, Higgins said: “The next thing I remember was the door opening and three men running in.

“The first ran towards me and kicked me on the chest with the sole of his foot. As a result of the kick I fell back against the wall and down on to the bed.

“All three then pinned me down and stripped me, they put straps on my arms and legs and then they put a cover over me.”

PC Clarke, whose address is given on court papers as care of Police Scotland’s Professional Standards Department, denies assaulting Higgins, who was a prisoner at the time, by kicking him on the body and causing him to hit a wall.

The trial, before Sheriff David Pender, was adjourned until next month.