Father and sons launch brutal attack on police
OFFICERS SUBJECTED TO ‘GRATUITOUS AND SUSTAINED VIOLENCE’ DURING ASSAULT IN WHICH FEMALE PCS WERE PUNCHED IN THE HEAD AND FACE
A FATHER and two of his sons have been locked up after four police officers were viciously attacked.
The two female and two male officers were punched in the head and face, and one was bitten on the finger.
Three of them needed hospital treatment. Police chiefs said the Pcs faced ‘gratuitous and sustained violence’ in Hattersley, Tameside – but despite their injuries they still arrested their attackers.
Kyle Needham, 19, Sean Needham, 22, and their father John Needham, 47, all of Kingsbridge Avenue, Hattersley, pleaded guilty to affray.
Sean Needham also admitted assault causing actual bodily harm in relation to a cut above one of the female officer’s eyes which needed medical treatment.
Police were called to their home shortly before 11pm on Sunday, August 27 last year. It followed a report of an unrelated incident at the property about concerns for someone’s welfare.
Three officers arrived at first but were forced to call for further back up, leading to the arrival of the fourth officer.
At one point in the subsequent disturbance an officer deployed a Taser.
Both female officers were punched several times in the face – one was left with cuts – and the second suffered cuts to her lip and eyebrow.
Both male officers were repeatedly punched in the head, leaving them with cuts, bruising and swelling, and one was bitten on his ring finger. The three officers who went to hospital were discharged later and returned to work. Chief Supt Neil Evans said the officers were subjected to ‘gratuitous and sustained violence’ in what he described as an ‘all too common situation.’ He said: “My colleagues were called to this address because someone there was scared for their safety. “While trying to keep people safe they were subjected to gratuitous and sustained violence, which is unfortunately an all too common situation my officers face. “I am proud of their actions on that night in that they protected others and looked out for one another ensuring that they minimised the injuries to themselves and ensured that the offenders were arrested so that they could quite properly be held to account.” At Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court, Sean Needham and John Needham were both jailed by a judge for nine months. Kyle Needham was detained for seven months at a young offenders’ institution. Chief Supt Neil Evans