Hero saved woman being stabbed

A hero who saved a woman’s life after taking on a man wielding a meat cleaver has been handed an award for his courage.

Patrick Gatt leapt into action as pensioner Fred Butcher was stabbing residential care home manager, Mina Turner, at Hengist Court last January. Last Tuesday he received a gold medal at the National Police Chief’s Council Police Public Bravery Awards.

Mr Gatt was visiting his elderly mother at the home in Marsham Street, Maidstone on January 26, 2017, when he saw Mrs Turner lying on the lounge floor with Butcher, 80, stabbing her with a meat cleaver and filleting knife. She was screaming, losing vast quantities of blood.

Mr Gatt grabbed the attacker by the collar and punched him. He forced Butcher to drop the weapon and secured his wrists, sitting on his stomach until police arrived. Butcher was jailed for 13 years for attempted murder but died in prison in May.

Two teenagers were also hon- oured in the ceremony, receiving silver medals for helping to snare a sex offender. When a man approached a 14-year-old girl near Tonbridge Castle last July and asked her to look at an indecent image on his phone she shouted for assistance. A 14-year-old boy went to her aid and helped alert police, who arrested Barry Powell, 54, from Tufton Street, Maidstone.

He was jailed for three years and eight months after admitting making indecent images of children, causing a child to watch a sexual act, and breaches of a sexual offences prevention order.

Chief Constable Alan Pughsley said: “These are people who put themselves at risk of harm because they believed it was the right thing to do.”