Police officer from near Banbury honoured for saving lives of mother and children in violent attack

PC David Icke, who is from near Banbury, and two other officers were honoured for saving the lives of a terrified wife and her three children by detaining an extremely abusive, violent and aggressive husband have been named the overall winners of the Thames Valley Police Federation Bravery Awards.

The Milton Keynes Police Officers - PC David Icke, PC Emily Chapman and PC Nazia Hussain - beat off stiff competition from six other outstanding acts of police bravery to win The Major John Howard Award for Bravery. They will now be the Thames Valley Police representatives at the National Police Bravery Awards in London this July.

The trio attended an Awards Ceremony in the Thames Valley Policing area last night (Thursday March 5) where they were celebrated by senior officers, colleagues and politicians.

Thames Valley Police Federation Chairman Craig O’Leary said the officers were life-savers.

He added: “I am delighted for our colleagues. They are very worthy winners. These officers endured what can only be descried as a quite horrific incident. They were, themselves, subject to attack by this offender, and if you read their story it just exemplifies their professionalism, the way they dealt with this individual.

“Having sustained some injuries themselves they have done a phenomenal job in making sure that this offender was brought to justice.

"That was reflected in the sentence that he was given by the courts. The courts don’t hand out 16-year sentences unless it’s warranted, and I think that really goes to show the severity of the job that this team faced on that day.

“Every single one of them, is brave to the core, and they are a terrific example of the professionalism and the bravery that our Thames Valley Police officers show out there on a daily basis.”

The trio suffered severe injuries during the incident but were still able to subdue the man during the attack in June 2018.

PC Icke said; “We were basically fighting for our lives, and we needed to protect the people in the house already because we don’t know at that point what’s happened to them and the state of their health. We had to control the man anyway we could.”

The officers were called to attend reports of screaming from a property in the town of Bletchley at around midnight. On arrival, the officers could see neighbours were out on the street and could hear horrifying high-pitched screams coming from one of the houses.

Realising they were children’s screams the officers knew they had to get into the property as quickly as possible and rather than waiting for specialist equipment to arrive they smashed their way into the property using a neighbour’s hammer.

PC Hussain led the way up the stairs followed by PC Chapman who was carrying a Taser, with PC Icke to the rear. As they reached the landing, the officers could see a man standing over his wife who he was violently punching about her face and body.

Seeing the officers approach him up the stairs, the man turned his aggression to PC Hussain, and he grabbed hold of her before punching her in the head several times. PC Chapman then discharged her Taser, but such was the man’s aggressive state that it had no effect on him.

She was then forced to use her PAVA spray on the man in a bid to get him to release PC Hussain and to get him under control, but again the deterrent did little to stop the attack.

By now the man had grabbed hold of PC Chapman and was forcing her over the bannister before PC Icke managed to administer more PAVA spray directly into the man’s eyes.

However, the man carried on attacking PC Hussain before the officers managed to bundle him to the ground.

Back up then arrived to help detain the man, and the officers could see the devastation his violence had caused in the home.

Three children were in the bedroom, which was covered in blood and vomit.

PC Icke broke his hand during the incident while PC Hussain suffered a concussion.

The man later received a 16-year sentence, and it transpired he been planning to murder his wife by drowning her in the bath as the officers arrived.