5ft officer ‘looked into his eyes and thought she’d die’
A POLICE officer was left with devastating injuries after she was punched to the ground and stamped on by Sheku Bayoh, according to her father.
PC Nicole Short was among officers who responded to reports of a man carrying a knife and behaving erratically in a Kirkcaldy street on the morning of May 3 in 2015.
The 5ft officer confronted the 5ft 10in fitness enthusiast, who attacked her. Now her father, Thomas Short, 57, has revealed that she has been left with permanent physical and psychological problems.
Mr Short said he has absolutely no doubt that if Mr Bayoh had lived he would have faced charges for the serious assault or even attempted murder of his daughter.
Speaking for the first time since prosecutors announced police officers would not face criminal charges, Mr Short said: ‘We have been forced to stay silent for three years, knowing the truth of what
‘The force of Bayoh’s punch lifted her off the ground’
happened that morning yet not being able to talk about it because of proceedings.’
Describing how his diminutive daughter came face to face with Mr Bayoh, he said she had suddenly found herself in front of him alone and had shouted at him to stop.
Witnesses have told how, as two colleagues writhed on the ground after breathing in CS spray, which they had fired unsuccessfully at Mr Bayoh, he turned, laughed, and ran at terrified PC Short.
Her father, a mental health nurse from Glenrothes, Fife – who has found himself helping to counsel his daughter because of the trauma and panic attacks she still suffers – added: ‘She remembers looking into his eyes and she was scared. She thought she was going to die. She turned and started to run but he caught up quickly and she felt his fist suddenly connect with the back of her head.
‘The force of the punch lifted her off the ground and she flew through the air head first, landing on the tarmac. She remembers coming round and being
dragged to safety. But while she was unconscious, onlookers say he was stamping on her back.’
Witnesses have reported that Mr Bayoh was about to stamp on her head when one of her colleagues rugby-tackled him and pulled him down.
The attack has left PC Short, 32, with facial nerve damage, as well as knee and back injuries.
It is unlikely she will return to her duties. It is the psychological effects of the attack, however, that have had the greatest impact.
Mr Short said: ‘She still has nightmares and is a shadow of her former self. She’s gone from being an outgoing girl to living in various states of fear. It’s heartbreaking to watch. All we can do is try to support her.’
Mr Short said that in the aftermath of the incident, the officers were subjected to a ‘disgraceful’ and sustained ‘hate campaign’ on social media.
Citing a football match he persuaded her to go to with him – during which she posed for a selfie with a footballer – he said: ‘She suddenly found herself being attacked by strangers on social media for being there when she was off sick. It knocked her back months.
‘It was my idea that she go and I’d built her up mentally to a point where she agreed. We were so proud she’d managed to overcome her fears.
‘She no longer wanted to be around other people. As is always the case with mental health sufferers, people believe that because they put on a brave face, everything is OK, when inside they are a wreck.’
Relatives of Mr Bayoh, from Kirkcaldy, Fife, say they feel ‘nothing but a total betrayal’ over the decision not to prosecute.
They are suing Police Scotland on the grounds that Mr Bayoh’s death could have been avoided.
Their lawyer, Aamer Anwar, has said they will ‘robustly pursue a civil action’ and ‘accept nothing less than a public inquiry from the Scottish Government’. Mr Short agrees a formal inquiry would reveal the truth.
He said: ‘The officers in this case are not allowed to speak out publicly, yet they’ve been unfairly vilified and I think the public will be shocked when they know what actually took place.
‘Like all emergency services, they were the ones running towards trouble as everyone else was running away from it.’
He added: ‘Nicole was protecting the public and upholding the rule of the law – the same things Mr Bayoh’s family claim the police failed to do where he is concerned.
‘Her reward? To be punched so hard that she flew through the air and landed in the middle of the road.
‘As her father, the description of what followed next will never leave me. Witnesses have described the scene like one of a wild animal circling its prey for the kill as he stamped on her back repeatedly.
‘Maybe once the full facts are out there, some people won’t be so quick to judge.’
‘Attacked by strangers on social media’