'Jail all offenders who attack police'

From the Telegraph & Argus, first published Wednesday 29th Jun 2005.

Two West Yorkshire police officers were attacked every day last year, the latest statistics show.

There were 634 assaults in 2003-04 - less than half the number the previous year.

But today MPs and police representatives urged Bradford's courts to get tough with culprits and called for a return to jailing anyone who lashes out at the police.

One Bradford officer, left in excruciating pain and unable to work for over a year, blamed the courts for not locking up violent offenders after his attacker was ordered to pay him just £4 a month in compensation.

Overall assaults fell from 1,695 in 2002-03 - or 4.5 assaults a day. But Tom McGhie, West Yorkshire Police Federation chairman, said even one attack was too many and urged the courts to send offenders to prison.

"People don't respect police in the way they used to and they lash out," said Mr McGhie. "When I joined the police 27 years ago, people who assaulted an officer went to prison. It was an assault on every member of the public. Now that doesn't happen.

"I would like to see a return to that, so it makes people think about the consequences.

"Magistrates have powers to send people to prison. They need to be given guidance from the Government."

One Bradford officer told the Telegraph & Argus how he was off work for 12 months after rupturing knee ligaments in a violent struggle with a man he was trying to arrest.

The 28-year-old policeman, who was based at Odsal, went to an incident at a house in West Bowling in August 2003. It involved a man who, two weeks earlier, had assaulted another officer and broken his nose.

"He was about 6ft 2ins, 15 or 16 stone and muscular. He was lashing out with his head and legs," said the officer.

"He kicked my colleague in the groin and, as we scuffled, we fell and my knee bent under me.

``The pain was excruciating. It felt like somebody had torn my leg off."

The officer was told he would need a major operation but there was a waiting list of between six and eight months so he took out a £5,000 personal loan to have the surgery done privately.

It was still almost a year before he could return to light duties, which he stayed on for more than three months. He has now moved to a new post in Wakefield.

He said: "My leg will never be 100 per cent and I will develop arthritis in the knee in ten years time. I have two massive steel screws in it for life.

"The man was charged with assaulting a police officer but, in the end, pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of resisting arrest and was ordered to pay me compensation at four pounds a month.

"Too many people are being let off. The courts aren't dishing out sentences they should do.

"That person had a long list of convictions for violence. If he had received the prison sentences he should have, he wouldn't have been on the streets causing the injuries and violence he has."

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