PC gets bravery award for tackling violent woman
Reporter
AN off-duty police officer who confronted a violent woman armed with a hammer in just her pyjamas and with her hand in plaster has been commended for her bravery.
PC Kelda Griffiths was getting ready for bed when she heard a disturbance and a banging noise outside the house in Port Talbot.
When she went to investigate she was confronted by a woman who was smashing the window of a house four doors down with a hammer.
Although Kelda’s right hand was in plaster after she had fractured it arresting a violent man the week before, she didn’t hesitate in trying to stop the woman, who by now was screaming, hitting windows and kicking parked cars.
Kelda tried to calm her down, but she walked towards the officer swinging the hammer and screaming.
The woman then ran towards a man with the hammer raised, so the offduty officer grabbed her from behind and managed to get hold of the hammer.
“When I went out to the street I could see her smashing the windows and I shouted at her, ‘What are you doing? Put that hammer down,’” explained the policewoman.
“She started walking towards me swinging the hammer from hand to hand, so I told her that police were on the way and she had to put the hammer down.
“A man came out from another house with a large dog, and she started to shout that she was going to kill him. It was a really large hammer and she wasn’t far from him so I knew I needed to act as quickly as I could.”
She went to grab the woman but Kelda fell to the ground, then the woman’s mother arrived and stood on her plastered hand, preventing her from getting up.
The first woman then attacked the police officer, gouging her eyes, pulling her up by her hair and biting her head. Kelda managed to kick the women away, threw the hammer towards the man so he could get rid of it, and ran into a house until police arrived.
Kelda, who also confronted Matthew Williams after he had murdered Cerys Yemm at the Sirhowy Arms hostel, has been recognised for her bravery at the 24th national Police Bravery Awards in London.
The awards, hosted by the Police Federation of England and Wales, honour and recognise police officers who perform outstanding acts of bravery.
Speaking after the ordeal, Kelda said: “I’ve been involved in incidents where you get punched, you get hit, you get kicked, but to have my eyes gouged the way they were, to be bitten… all the side of my head, my hair being pulled out – it was just not human to me. I could feel my hair being ripped out and she even said to me at one point, ‘I have got your blood in my mouth, yum, yum.’
“But I do believe if the gentleman involved had got hit with the hammer, it would’ve been critical or life threatening.
“I couldn’t have lived with myself if something had happened to him and I hadn’t done anything.
“I can live with the injuries and what’s gone on in my life since, but if I’d stood there and done nothing I’d never live with myself.”
PC Griffiths has 16 years’ service and has spent most of it in the Blackwood area.
She has recently had surgery to repair her knee after the attack in May last year and is currently back in work on restricted duties.
“It has been frustrating because I have been deskbound,” she says. “I can’t wait to get back out on the road.”
Her attacker has now been freed after serving a 14-month sentence for the attack.
Kelda says: “It was a decent outcome.”
John Apter, national chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales, said: “These awards highlight the incredible bravery that police officers show every single day.
“PC Griffiths demonstrated outstanding courage and dedication, putting the lives of others before her own without a second thought.”