Surrey officer hits out at lenient sentences handed to thugs who attack officers

14 November 2018

A Surrey Police Sergeant assaulted so violently that she couldn’t see out of one eye for nearly a week has hit out at lenient sentences being handed down to thugs who attack officers.

Heather Caruana has been left with a permanent scar after she was headbutted by teenager Thomas Kilbride in Epsom.

He avoided prison for the attack and was given a conditional discharge.

Officers from across the country told The Sun online that sentences are too lenient and that those who assault officers know it.

Sgt Caruana said: “I still get nervous now when dealing with violent jobs…I am constantly on guard in case someone tries to attack me again.

“Offenders just don’t care nowadays and there’s hardly any penalty at court.”

She had been helping a female colleague restrain Kilbride when he headbutted her in the face without warning.

 “I felt a huge impact on my face like someone had hit me with a chair and it knocked me back,” she told The Sun online.

“I was slightly dazed and didn’t really know what had happened. My colleague was on the floor clutching her hand as he had bent her finger back. The offender then ran off.

“I shouted to my colleague to get in the police car and we drove after him, but she told me to stop and pull over as there was blood dripping down my face.

“We stopped our pursuit and I went to A&E. It was only then when I looked in a mirror when I realised how bad my injury was. My eye was closing up by the minute and my eyebrow needed gluing.”

Home Office figures from all 44 police forces reveal 26,295 officers were attacked on duty from April 2017 to April this year.

And Sgt Caruana, who has been with the force for seven years, said officers are overstretched and overworked and that she ‘fears’ for colleagues out on the streets.

“We do not have enough officers out on the streets at the moment”, she said.

“Most of the officers I manage spend 90% of their time investigating crimes in the office. Most of them have a number of crimes they are investigating, and they still have to respond to 999 calls.

“A lot of officers go off work with work related stress which reduces numbers. This is a hard job to do. We see distressing things every day.

“If we had more officers, we could get out on the streets and have the time to foot patrol and show more of a visible presence.”

“Most of the time we are so busy we may not have two officers to go to incidents,” she added.

“All officers would put themselves in harm’s way to protect vulnerable people, protect their colleagues and prevent crime, however if we’re not getting the proportionate outcome in court, most officers think ‘what is the point of being injured’”?

New legislation allowing courts to hand down 12-month sentences to people who assault police officers and emergency service workers is now law.

The PFEW says the powers set out in The Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act must now be used by courts in order to protect police officers.