Retired cop reunites with woman he saved during knife attack

24 March 2025

Roy Beasley said the attack on Natalie Queiroz, who was 36 weeks pregnant at the time, was the most difficult he had to deal with during his 32-year career.

And, eight years after the incident in March 2016, he was shocked to be presented with his medals by Natalie as a retirement gesture on his final visit to Sutton Coldfield Police Station.

Roy said: “It was all very emotional. When I was coming up to retirement, one of the PCSOs on the team asked me about my service and one of the questions was what's the worst thing that I’ve had to deal with?

Medals

“I mentioned this incident and the PCSO got in touch with Natalie and asked her to come and present me with the medals.

“I had no idea that she was coming to the police station, so it was a big surprise to see her. It was really nice.

“It was also really nice to have the time, at that point, to sit down with her and talk to her about that particular day, and to see how it’s changed her life.”

Roy, who was neighbourhood PC based in Sutton Coldfield, was on regular patrol with his colleague, PC Dave McCallum, on the day he first met Natalie.

Roy Beasley and Natalie Queiroz.

He recalled it was around 3pm when they could hear screaming and shouting coming from Trinity Hill in the town.

Roy said: “As we went up Trinity Hill, we could see that there were a few people there in a state of panic.

“I couldn’t see what was going on because the attack was taking place in the entrance to a church. We could just tell by the way people were behaving that something was not right.”

Roy described seeing Natalie on the ground, while brave members of the public who had tried to stop the attack were also injured.

Attacker

He and Dave quickly disarmed and handcuffed the attacker before turning to take care of Natalie.

Roy said: “It was a case of being in the right place at the right time, to be able to stop it when other people had tried to and had got injured.

“But I didn’t realise how badly injured Natalie was until we’d got him secure. Because of the ferocity of the attack, she had lost a lot of blood and she needed to be taken immediately to hospital.”

Natalie was airlifted to hospital for treatment and her unborn baby survived.

She is now an author and campaigner and, in 2022, was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to young people and the prevention of knife crime.

Her attacker was jailed for 18 years.

Helicopter

Roy said that he and Natalie were able to fill in details of the day for each other.

“There were things that happened on that day that she didn't know about, and I could sort of fill in the gaps for her,” he explained.

“One of the things that Natalie told me was that she has since met the helicopter pilot and crew that saved her life.

“The pilot was given a written warning for landing where he did for endangering the helicopter, because it was so close to trees and streetlamps and things.

“But he decided that it was that serious that he had to try to get this helicopter down and get her out of there.”

Roy, who is now working as a postie, added: “It’s the one incident that will stay with me forever.”

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