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Rapist caught after dramatic police chase through Sheffield ends in bloody struggle which left PC unconscious
A rapist was caught after a dramatic police chase through Sheffield ended in a bloody struggle which left both him and a PC unconscious.
The two police officers who apprehended the attacker after he had punched, strangled and raped a stranger in a harrowing assault that day have been hailed as heroes for helping bring him to justice.
PC Toby Brown and PC Harriet Murray were called to a property in Sheffield following a concerned call from the victim’s mother in February last year. PC Murray – who was a probationer at the time – explained how she knew something was not right and kept her finger constantly pressed to the doorbell, praying for an answer.
“We were there for about two or three minutes before the next door neighbours came out and spoke to us and said that they’d heard screaming,” she said. “I remember turning round to Toby and saying, ‘I’m really not happy. If no one answers soon, I want to put this door in’.”
The victim eventually answered the door in an inconsolable state, explaining that she had been punched, strangled and raped by a stranger. The two PCs eventually found the assailant on the roof. He tried to escape onto the street, with PC Brown in pursuit, before the attacker stopped and violently assaulted PC Brown.
‘Blood was pouring from my face but I managed to grab hold of him’
PC Brown, who needed hospital treatment for his injuries, recalled: “As I tried to get hands on him, he launched a vicious attack on me, punching me in the face. At that point I felt dizzy and virtually on the verge of being knocked out, and blood was pouring from my face.
“I managed to grab hold of him, tackled him to the ground, and laid on top of him using my body weight while drifting in and out of consciousness. We were determined. It was just complete focus on that guy needed to be caught.”
The pair fought on the ground until PC Murray arrived to find them both passed out.
PC Murray said: “I put one handcuff on the suspect, put my arm on Toby and said, ‘I’m here, you can let go of him, you can get off’. And it’s at that point that I must have brought Toby back round, and that’s when he shouts out on the radio saying that he needs an ambulance.
“I could see blood start to form on the pavement, and I was so tired, but there was the adrenaline and the level of the incident that we were at, I just assumed he’d been stabbed. I think your mind just goes away to the worst case scenario when everything’s so heightened. I could hear sirens coming in the background. Then Toby rolled onto his back and he lost consciousness again.”
Attacker jailed for 21 years after pleading guilty to multiple counts of rape
She added: “I knew I had to keep watch on the suspect; I didn’t want him to jump up and start running again because we didn’t know who he was. He was a complete stranger to the victim and no trace on our systems, so the likelihood of catching him if he’d got away would have been extremely slim. So the fact that we got him after we saw him at the scene itself makes me really proud of what we achieved that night.”
Thomas Andrew, of Peakstone Close, Doncaster, pleaded guilty to four counts of rape, two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and one count of burglary. He was jailed for 21 years in January.
PCs Brown and Murray have both been honoured for their courageous actions that night with South Yorkshire Police Federation Bravery Awards. They will attend the awards ceremony on Thursday, May 25, when a winner will be announced who will travel to London for the National Police Federation Bravery Awards in July.
