Award nominations for West Midlands officers after eye-gouging attack
- Published
PC Holly Necchi and PC Paul Newman have been honoured at the national Police Bravery Awards
A police officer who feared his eyes would be gouged out when he was attacked and the colleague who came to his aid are to be honoured.
PC Paul Newman chased a suspected drug dealer into a water-filled storm drain in Walsall.
The suspect tried to gouge his eyes out and held his head under water before PC Holly Necchi came to his aid.
It was thanks to her that PC Newman survived the attack, the police federation said.
Neither officer knew what they would encounter when they ran into the storm drain, a spokesman said,
PC Newman had pursued Carl Batchelor, who had links to gangs and drug dealing, after he fled the Bescot Retail Centre car park where he had been stopped, during the July 2019 incident. A hand gun had been found in his car, police said.
Batchelor, followed by PC Newman, ran into the storm drain and "lunged" at the officer, "gouging at his eyes and grabbing inside his mouth with such force that he punctured a hole under his tongue".
PC Newman said he had feared for his life when both men fell into the brook during the struggle and Batchelor held his head under water.
Calvert Batchelor was jailed for more than nine years in January 2020
Unknown to him, he had been followed into the tunnel by PC Necchi who had heard shouting from her colleague and helped PC Newman restrain Batchelor.
"These two officers were incredibly brave, neither of them really knew what they would encounter when they ran into this storm drain," Jon Nott, of West Midlands Police Federation said.
"They knew the man they were pursuing had a gun in his car and they knew he desperately wanted to escape from them."
Batchelor later admitted possessing an illegal firearm and causing grievous bodily harm (GBH) and was jailed for nine years and four months at Wolverhampton Crown Court in January 2020.
The Police Bravery Awards are taking place on Tuesday
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