Man who attacked police with hammer has sentence halved

AN AFGHAN murderer who attacked two police officers with a hammer after being let into Britain unchecked has had his sentence cut by half on appeal.

Jamshid Piruz, 35, was given a life sentence earlier this year after he launched a frenzied attack on the two officers during a break-in at a property.

He cornered PC Jessica Chick and lashed out wildly at her with the claw hammer before repeatedly hitting her colleague PC Stuart Young.

It later emerged Afghan-born Dutch citizen Piruz had served time in jail in the Netherlands for murder after he cut the throat of a woman who was a tenant in his flat in 2006.

Sentencing him for the attack on the police officers, Judge Jeremy Gold said Piruz was a “very dangerous man” from whom the public needed protecting. But appeal court judges have cut his minimum sentence to three years. The appeal court ruling means the convicted murderer could be free in less than 30 months.

Mr Justice Holroyde, sitting with Lady Justice Rafferty and Mr Justice Sweeney, cut his minimum term saying the crown court judge had not given him enough credit for his early guilty plea.

Piruz attacked PC Chick and PC Young during a break-in at a property near Crawley on Jan 7 2016.

The court heard that after arriving in Britain in Dec 2015 to visit relatives, Piruz had missed his return flight home from Gatwick Airport on Jan 4 2016.

He went on to be prosecuted for assault after he spat at a member of easyjet staff. He later pleaded guilty at Hove Crown Court to burglary and two counts of attempting to cause GBH with intent and affray.

Matt Webb, chairman of the Sussex Police Federation, said: “It is highly frustrating that a male, who is a convicted murderer in another European country, has been treated so leniently by the appeal judge.”

PC Chick said: “I have never been so scared in my life. I thought ‘This is it, I am going to die’.”