Force condemns attacker's sentence after PC's brain injury

PC Aspinall spent 11 days in hospital after the incident

A chief constable says she is "saddened" an offender did not receive a custodial sentence for a assault on a police office that left him with bruising to the brain.

PC Ashley Aspinall said he "was genuinely convinced that I was going to die" following the assault while on duty for Lancashire Police in Blackpool in April last year.

PC Aspinall was attacked while trying to detain Ian Scott, who was thrown out of a bar for being drunk and had become abusive.

Scott, 50, of Bispham pleaded guilty to wounding of an emergency service worker and was given a 24-month suspended sentence at Preston Crown Court last month, police said.

PC Ashley Aspinall spent 11 days in hospital following the attack

During a scuffle with Scott, PC Aspinall ended up on the pavement and began to lose consciousness.

"I recall trying to communicate with my colleagues whilst I was on the floor and my brain not functioning," PC Aspinall said.

"Since the incident, I keep reliving it in my head, trying to understand if there is anything I did that could have triggered this incident and I honestly believed that I didn’t.

"I followed the police protocols and policies and I don’t believe any of my actions that day warranted this level of injury."

He said "the only thing that kept me going was thinking about my daughter and seeing her again".

'Abhorrent behaviour'

PC Aspinall spent 11 days in hospital and it was a further four months before he was able to return to his job as a response officer in Blackpool.

Lancashire Police's Chief Constable Sacha Hatchett, said it was "an alarming case".

"Assaults on our officers will never be acceptable," she said.

"We are seeing an ever-increasing rise in the number of assaults on emergency workers, and something has to change to deter the perpetrators from seeing this abhorrent behaviour as acceptable.

"When police officers are assaulted – and the level of injury is of the serious nature caused in this case – the offender should expect to receive an immediate custodial sentence."