A RETIRED bookseller leapt over a barrier into a courtroom and rushed into the dock to get to his wife’s side as she cried over a driving offence.

Philip Michael Gibbons, 68, of Cwmorgan, Newcastle Emlyn, was detained in the cells for contempt of court by Haverfordwest magistrates on Monday morning.

His wife Wendy Anne Gibbons, 66, of the same address, was attending a hearing for charges of speeding through a local village and failing to provide information about the identity of the driver suspected of an offence in September 2016.

Mr Gibbons was told he was unable to represent his wife during the courtroom proceedings, despite protests that he had legal training, because he was not a practising solicitor.

His wife, who suffers from MS, became emotional as her case was listed for trial, and Gibbons jumped into the court from the public gallery. He climbed over a large wooden barrier and rushed to let himself into the dock.

He shut himself in and sat alongside his sobbing wife, exclaiming that the situation was ‘disgraceful’, and lay on the floor refusing to leave when members of court security were summoned to deal with him.

Gibbons shouted: “Unhand me please!” and made himself ridged as his wife begged him to cooperate.

Magistrates authorised his detention for contempt of court and Gibbons was taken down to the cells.

He later returned to the dock from custody to apologise for his behaviour via duty solicitor Mike Kelleher.

Gibbons, a retired bookseller, accepted that his manner of entering the courtroom, when he wasn’t entitled to, was in contempt of court.

Mr Kelleher said: “At the time his wife was in the dock, she suffers from MS and is not a well person. He obviously had a huge amount of sympathy for her, and it was out of concern for her that he did what he did. He accepts that he showed discourtesy to the court.”

Magistrates accepted Gibbons’ apology and sentenced him to a day in custody.

The chairman of the bench said: “We hope that you now understand the position and will treat the court with respect in future.”

Wendy Gibbons pleaded not guilty to driving at 41mph in a 30mph zone on the A484 in Cenarth at 1.12pm on September 16 last year and a trial date was listed for September 4.