Welsh affairs lead pays tribute to Police Bravery Award winners and nominees

14 July 2023

Police Federation Welsh affairs lead Nicky Ryan has congratulated the region’s  2023 Police Bravery Award winners and nominees.

Nicky joined colleagues from across the country for a special reception at 10 Downing Street hosted by Home Secretary Suella Braverman and then the awards presentation ceremony at a London hotel.

Four officers from South Wales Police were named as the winners for Wales at the awards ceremony in London last night.

PC Owen Bedford, Inspector Paul Ramsay, Detective Inspector Paul Graham and a fourth officer who wishes to remain anonymous, were honoured for the courage they showed as they tried to rescue a woman from a crumbling cliff edge.

The four officers risked their own lives to form a human chain over the edge of the high steep cliffs at Southerndown in the Vale of Glamorgan in the early hours of 12 April 2021.

They managed to get within touching distance of the woman and DI Graham managed to momentarily grab her hands but she slipped and fell and unfortunately did not survive her injuries.

Left to right: Paul Ramsay, Owen Bedford and Paul Graham

Gwent police sergeants Isabelle Coulson and Ross Phillips were nominated for confronting and containing an aggressive dog responsible for a fatal attack on a 10-year-old boy.

The pair were among the first to attend the scene of a dog attack at an address in Caerphilly in November 2021.

North Wales Police nominee PC Catherine Parry was hailed a real-life Happy Valley hero after she tackled  a knife-wielding man in a supermarket.

She was off-duty and shopping in Sainsbury’s in Oswestry in the neighbouring West Mercia force area when a man came in with a knife while experiencing a mental health crisis.

PC Parry, who has been in the force for 20 years, displayed outstanding courage to protect fellow shoppers and subdue the offender.

Identifying herself as a police officer, she told the man to put the knife down but he continued to scream and shout and went behind the cigarette counter where he repeatedly stabbed the till so hard it broke the blade.

PC Parry kept the man inside the supermarket until West Mercia Police officers arrived to support her and tackle the man to the ground.

Nicky said: “Once again the Police Bravery Award nominees from the Welsh forces have made us all proud to be police officers and I am delighted that their courage has been recognised.

“The annual awards are a highlight of the policing year and give us the opportunity to showcase and celebrate some of the extraordinary acts of heroism that police officers perform without giving a thought to their own personal safety.

“Each of our nominees risked their own lives as they tried to save others from harm and I think it takes a very special kind of courage to do that.

“Police officers run towards danger when others might run the other way and it is worth remembering that when negative headlines and unfair criticism make us feel undervalued.”