Drunk Church of England vicar shouts 'I'm from the Vatican you are f*****' as he is arrested by police

Gareth Jones pleaded guilty to two counts of assault by beating at Highbury Magistrates Court

Gareth Jones served as priest at St Mary and the Virgin Church in Great Ilford, north-east London (Google Maps)

A Church of England vicar has pleaded to assault charges after yelling “I’m from the Vatican you’re f*****!” and drunkenly attacking a police officer and a paramedic outside a London nightclub.

Parish priest Gareth Jones yelled “I have diplomatic immunity” as he punched, kicked and spat at a police officer and paramedic who had found him passed out on the street in his clerical garb in the early hours of the morning.

When paramedic Ian Pollock gently woke the 36-year-old vicar to check he was all right, Jones awoke and threatened to attack him.

He was unable to stand after drinking three bottles of wine, several pints of beer and spirits including gin and vodka but began to lash out from the ground and kicked Mr Pollock twice in the leg.

“Mr Pollock, fearing an attack, positioned himself on top of Mr Jones to protect himself. Mr Jones is still attacking the paramedic, he punches him in the chest then tried to bite his arms and is spitting on him,” prosecutor Edward Aydin told Highbury Magistrates Court.

Two police officers intervened and PC Andrew Fletcher was kicked in the left cheek as he tried to hold the vicar down.

Jones then claimed he had diplomatic immunity from the Vatican and said the police officer was “f*****”, the Sun reported.

Mr Aydin said: “He made no attempt to respond to a caution and continued to shout that he had diplomatic immunity.

“I'm not sure if he has anything to do with the Vatican because he is with the Church of England.

“There's no relationship between those two religions.”

Eventually PC Fletcher put a leg strap around the vicar’s ankles and he was taken to Belgravia Police Station.

When the vicar, who serves at St Mary and the Virgin church in Great Ilford, north-east London, sobered up, he said he had been drinking at El Vino and The George in Fleet Street before going to the nightclub.

The married father-of-one then apologised for his actions and said he was “utterly ashamed and sorry for the harm that he had caused”.

The court heard how Jones had previous convictions for a bomb hoax, possession of cannabis and criminal damage from his teenager years but his defence lawyer, Dominic Hockley, said he had had a “misspent youth” and had become a reformed man since his ordination in 2006.

Mr Hockley said Jones had consumed 53 units before the incident and was now seeking treatment for alcohol addiction.

He said what had started as “social drinking with his wife” had spiralled into “something far more devastating”.

“To say that this incident has been a wake-up call would be an understatement”, he added.

District Judge Robin McPhee ordered Jones to pay £700 in fines, £200 compensation each to PC Fletcher and Mr Pollock, as well as £85 prosecution costs and a £35 victim surcharge after he pleaded guilty to two counts of assault by beating.

Jones will now face a separate ecclesiastical court which could ban him from practicing as a vicar for life.