Essex Officer Receives Bravery Award for Off-Duty Arrest of Armed Suspect

8 May 2025

An off-duty Essex Police officer who apprehended a violent suspect with a machete has received an Essex Police Federation 2025 Bravery Award.

In the late afternoon of on 5 April 2023, a man was violently attacked in the Southend area and left with serious injuries. Later that day, Essex Police received reports of a man walking around Southend city centre with a machete; at this time they were unaware this was the perpetrator of the earlier attack. 

DC Phil O'Connell was off-duty in Southend and saw a man acting suspiciously, discarding something in an alleyway and then running off. DC O'Connell alerted a single-crewed uniformed colleague and, although he was still off-duty and had no PPE, he joined the officer in a search of the area. 

DC O'Connell recalls: “I was walking down the high street, and Southend high street in the summer there’s a lot of activity, there’s a lot of kids, a lot of teenagers, you get a lot of screaming and shouting, but there was just something different…

“I saw some kids running round screaming, but there was like families all looking in the same direction, and in my head I was like, ‘Is there more to this…?”

While conducting the search, DC O'Connell saw the suspect and gave chase. After a lengthy chase, the officer, finally caught the suspect and restrained him until his colleague arrived, who then arrested the man on suspicion of possession of a bladed article in a public space. 

He added: “I ran up behind him, because I had no equipment, I just sort of bear hugged him from behind and grabbed his arms to keep him under control, and it was just blood all over his hands.”

The evidence DC O’Connell provided, along with the evidence obtained by the investigation team, ensured that the suspect was charged and remanded in custody for offences of Section 18, wounding with intent, and possession of a bladed article in a public space. He was one of four men charged and remanded in custody for offences connected with this incident. He later received a custodial sentence at a young offenders institute.

On winning the Award, DC O’Connell said: “It’s nice to see… We don’t do it for it, but it is nice when people make the effort to say, ‘Do you know what? Fair play. That was actually quite a good one’.”

Essex Police Federation Chair Laura Heggie said: “What incredible work from Phil. This dangerous man was taken off the streets thanks to his quick thinking and commitment to doing the right thing, even on his day off.

“Once again this incident shows how Essex Police officers are never truly off duty. Phil put himself in harm’s way, without access to PPE, to protect the public and got the job done. We are very proud of him.”

DC O’Connell will attend the 2025 Essex Police Federation Bravery Awards on 15 May. At the event an overall winner or team will be announced, who will travel to London for the National Police Federation Bravery Awards in July.

The Essex Police Federation Bravery Awards are in association with The National Police Healthcare Scheme.

Also sponsoring the awards are Metfriendly, No1 Copperpot Credit Union, Serve and Protect Credit Union, Uniform Mortgages, Police Mutual, Niche, THB Legal, George Burrows and Arc Legal.