A CAREER criminal will serve longer in jail after telling a judge to shut up and calling him ‘sunshine’.

The disruptive behaviour of Henry McGrath, who represented himself during an earlier trial, led Judge Patrick Eccles to find him in contempt of court.

McGrath was last month given a four-year sentence having been convicted of five counts of handling stolen goods, four charges of making off with fuel without payment and a theft.

The 55-year-old was sentenced at Oxford Crown Court on Friday for his contemptuous behaviour following the often-interrupted two-week trial, which culminated in McGrath’s refusal to leave his cell to hear the jury’s verdicts or his sentence.

In a note handed to staff, he wrote: “Trial judge, see you and your friends in the Court of Appeal.

“If you can deny me justice I can deny you my presence. OK, yah?”

On Friday, Judge Eccles listed eight instances of McGrath’s contempt.

These included calling the judge ‘sunshine’, telling him to “shut up, Eccles” and accusing him of being “a tyrant” and “part of a double act” with the prosecution.

McGrath, of no fixed address, also repeatedly called prosecutor Tim Boswell ‘Tim Tim’.

Judge Eccles said the “insolent” behaviour “ridiculed and undermined the trial process”.

McGrath, who has 120 previous convictions, again refused to come up from his cell to hear the judge’s pronouncement.

The original trial arose after McGrath was found at a portable building in Tenacre Caravan Park, Sandford-on-Thames, in September 2010 with a collection of stolen numberplates and a stash of items taken in burglaries.

He also stole scaffolding equipment from Thames Form Work Limited between September 12 and 15 that year.

Sentencing McGrath for the contempt, Judge Eccles said: “It seems to me, there being no evidence of contrition, there must be a sentence of imprisonment.

“The matter is so serious it can only be dealt with in that way and it must be consecutive (to the existing four-year term).

“The sentence I pass is one of six months.”