A HOMELESS man who threw excrement at a police cell camera felt he had been “treated like an animal so he behaved like an animal”, magistrates have heard.

Gary Norman Bagnall, 46, admitted damaging the camera in an Aberystwyth police cell on 5 January with his solicitor saying that Bagnall had been unhappy with how he had been treated after being arrested.

Rhian Jones, prosecuting, said Bagnall had thrown his own excrement around the cell, including at the camera used to monitor prisoners.

Defence solicitor Alan Lewis said Bagnall regretted doing it, but said he was angry at his treatment at the police station.

Mr Lewis said Bagnall had been forced to the ground and had his clothes cut off him.

He said: “He said he felt like he’d been treated like an animal and so he behaved like an animal, which he regrets now.”

Mr Lewis said Bagnall, who has no fixed abode, is currently serving a 20-week prison sentence imposed at Llanelli Magistrates Court and urged magistrates to impose a short custodial sentence to run alongside his current sentence.

Magistrates sentenced Bagnall to seven days custody which will run concurrently with his current sentence.