A 35 year old dad got so drunk that he offered to fight two policewomen - and then tried to eat the mattress in his police cell, a court heard on Thursday.

Shamefaced Joseph Girvan told Cheltenham Magistrates he had no memory at all of his behaviour and it was the last time he would ever mix his drinks.

He blamed his drinking binge on the stress of becoming a full time father while his partner went out to work.

Girvan, of Green Street, Stonehouse, pleaded guilty to being drunk and disorderly in Stonehouse on June 25 and criminally damaging the mattress in a cell at the police custody suite in Quedgeley.

Prosecutor Edward Counsell said a policewoman was called to the street outside the Lord John pub in Stroud at 6.15pm by members of the public who were struggling with Girvan, who was clearly intoxicated.

He was not even able to tell the officer his own surname and he then told her he wanted to fight her.

Two other officers arrived and they put him in their van intending to take him home. But in the van he grabbed another officer's arm and said he wanted to fight her too.

He was arrested and taken to the Compass House cell suite where he was too drunk to answer most of the questions he was asked.

He was locked in a cell and later officers saw on CCTV that he 'appeared to be biting the mattress he was lying on,' said Mr Counsell.

Officers checked the mattress and found damage to one end of the mattress where he had been nibbling it.

Girvan told the court: "I can remember up until the Jagermeister and drinking one. We had drunk a bottle of wine within 45 minutes to an hour before that.

"I don't remember anything after that. I don't remember anything about the incident. I can only remember waking up in the cells.

"I will never be mixing my drinks again and I won't drink to that level. I have got 3 kids now - I shouldn't be doing this sort of thing. It was just stupid."

He said he is a full time dad and his wife works night shifts.

At the time, he said, he was stressed because it was the first time he had looked after the children on his own and he was stressed by it. He had since been to a doctor and was now on medication, he said.

The magistrates conditionally discharged him for six months and ordered him to pay a £150 criminal court charge, £40 prosecution costs and a £15 surcharge.