‘Pressure broke me down’
MATT Gilbert had been a PC with Leicestershire Police for two years when he quit his £23,000-a-year job – saying he “couldn’t go on” because of the pressure that was ruining his life.
“It was ridiculous during Covid. I was often in seven days a week, sometimes 15 or 16-hour shifts,” he said.
“I did 999 and 101 calls. It could be anything from a neighbour dispute or someone with a shotgun in their mouth, saying they were going to blow their head off.”
His most harrowing incident was being sent alone to a house where a mum and her 15-year-old son had been stabbed. Matt, 23, said: “A nine-year-old boy answered the door and said his mum and brother had been stabbed. The mum had been stabbed in the throat and the son in the neck. I was on my own and I had to decide who to treat. All the while, there is a nine-year-old boy in the background, thinking his mum and brother are going to die. It was chaos.” Matt, who now works as a delivery driver and is supported by charity Thin Blue Line UK, said: “I was constantly breaking down because of the pressure. It caused the breakdown of my relationship.
“I was on a lot of antidepressants. At one point, my mum, who lives in Spain, flew home because she was so worried. I couldn’t go on.”
I was on anti-depressants... it ended my relationship