Heroic policeman fired Taser to end machete slash terror

ONE of the most horrific attacks on a Metropolitan Police officer came when PC Stuart Outten was repeatedly slashed about the head with a machete.

Van driver Muhammad Rodwan, 56, grabbed the two-foot weapon and swung it at the officer.

PC Outten, 29, staggered away with blood pouring from his head, yet still managed to shoot Rodwan with his 50,000-volt Taser.

He required surgery for six wounds but, incredibly, is now back at work.

During Rodwan’s Old Bailey trial the officer said he was just trying to “stay alive”. He told how he pulled over Rodwan after midnight on August 7 last year for not having insurance. There was a scuffle as Rodwan tried to flee but he then grabbed the machete from the back of his van, swinging it at least four times at the PC’s head.

He told the trial: “I started feeling something sharp being snapped against my head. I fired the Taser. He was running towards me swinging the machete.”

He then called out for help to stem the bleeding adding: “By the time [the machete hit], the adrenaline of having a scuffle with someone has kicked in. So I was aware that something big, heavy and sharp was hitting me on the side of the head. You don’t know that you have been cut until I realised it was blood. All I know was that I had to back away.

“My thought process was: ‘I need to stop him. I need to stop him or he will kill me.’ I fully believe he would have carried on chopping and hacking at me.

“I may have been able to fight him off... I don’t think I would have been able to stop him without Taser.”

Rodwan, who had previous convictions for two machete attacks and rape, was jailed for 16 years. He claimed self-defence and was cleared of attempted murder but convicted of wounding with intent.