Student crashed car into PC and dragged victim along the street
A STUDENT smashed his car into a police officer and dragged him along the road in front of hundreds of shocked Edinburgh International Festival revellers.
Elliot Lees, 22, drove ‘at speed’ in a busy pedestrian- only area when he crashed into PC Ben Merrick.
The officer was dragged along the city’s Cowgate for a short distance before Lees ‘panicked’ and sped off, leaving the officer lying injured in the street.
Lees was chased by police after ditching his white Vauxhall Corsa in a nearby alleyway and tried to kick an officer in the head while escaping over a 6ft fence.
He was arrested two hours later at his flat at the city’s Lochrin Terrace.
Shocking CCTV footage of the incident last year was shown to Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Friday.
It showed hundreds of pub-goers and tourists packing the street.
Prosecutor Calum Thomson told the court the Cowgate had been closed to traffic between 7pm and 5am during the Festival.
He said: ‘Around 3.24am a Vauxhall Corsa was being driven at the Cowgate in Edinburgh and at that time the Edinburgh Festival was in full swing.’
He told the court the vehicle was spotted by two PCs on foot patrol in the area, adding: ‘ The white vehicle is seen travelling towards both constables at speed.
‘There is the initial contact with the officer and, secondly, the pedestrian here has to take evasive action as the vehicle travels towards him at speed.’
The footage showed Lees’s car colliding with PC Merrick and dragging him along the road before speeding off towards the Grassmarket. Lees is t hen s een abandoning the vehicle close to the scene and fleeing.
Mr Thomson told the court: ‘He makes off towards Hunter’s Close and, on arrival there, PC Martin Oakes shouts at the accused to stop.
‘The accused jumped onto a gate and PC Oakes has grabbed his trailing leg and the accused has began too flail his legs in close proximity to PC Oakes’s face.’
Officers t r aced Lees to his home nearby at around 5am and he admitted being the driver of the Vauxhall Corsa. Mr Thomson said that PC Merrick suffered scrapes to his arm and elbow and also had a numb knee due to the collision, though did not sustain any serious injury. Joe Boyd, defending, said Lees was a fourth-year actuarial science student at Heriot-Watt University and that his conduct that night had been ‘dangerous and irresponsible’. Mr Boyd added: ‘The date is the middle of the Edinburgh International Festival and it is a congested area. But he had not driven in that area before or at that time of day. He was not aware of the actual restrictions.
‘The officer motioned for him to stop and he hadn’t stopped and he sped off. He did that because he panicked.’
Sheriff Adrian Cottam gave Lees an i nterim driving ban and deferred sentence for reports.
Lees pleaded guilty to driving dangerously, striking PC Merrick on the body with his vehicle and dragging him along the road to his injury at Cowgate, Edinburgh, on August 10 last year.
He also admitted running away from officers and, while climbing a structure, repeatedly attempting to kick PC Oakes on the head at Hunter’s Close, Edinburgh, on the same date.