In a victim impact statement read out in court, the officer – who has 19 years’ experience with the police – said he had ‘never experienced a situation that made him feel so vulnerable, isolated or in such a state of fear’.
Douglas Raymond Ward (32) was sentenced in the Royal Court yesterday to three years in prison for grave and criminal assault as well as five other offences, including resisting arrest and breach of the peace.
Deputy Bailiff Robert MacRae, presiding, warned that Ward’s actions could have had ‘catastrophic consequences’, and that it was a ‘long and possibly fatal drop’.
On the morning of 31 July, the officer attended a block of flats in St Helier following reports of a disturbance. The court heard that, after becoming aggressive, Ward violently struggled with the officer in the stairwell of the building and threw his radio out of the window when the officer tried to call for back-up. Bodyworn footage played in court showed the officer being dangled out of the window. The footage also showed the officer pepper-spraying Ward but this had very little impact.
Crown Advocate Rebecca Morley-Kirk, prosecuting, said the victim was ‘in fear for his life’ and that, had it not been for the intervention of another officer, ‘the outcome could have been very different’.
She added that it took four officers to restrain Ward and that the struggle exacerbated an existing shoulder injury the officer had, which required several weeks of treatment. The court was also told the victim had been left with ‘significant’ lasting emotional damage.
Ward was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, the court heard, but refused to accept the diagnosis and his condition was aggravated by alcohol and drug use, a failure to take his medication and a lack of engagement with mental-health services. The defendant admitted that he had taken a line of MDMA before the offence. A probation report stated that Ward thought the police were targeting him, and he called the officer a ‘villain’ during the incident.
Ward was deemed fit to plead at an earlier hearing and initially pleaded not guilty. He changed his pleas a few weeks before a scheduled April trial.
When the assault occurred, Ward was on bail for a previous incident, which had taken place on the evening of 12 July, when a police officer and two concerned members of the public restrained him, after he was found behaving erratically in the Cheapside area of town. On that occasion, his behaviour included shouting, swearing and spitting. He had to have a leg restraint and spit-hood placed on him by officers, to guard them against possible Covid-19 infection.
Advocate Morley-Kirk called for a total custodial sentence of four years and three months for the offences.
Advocate Adam Harrison, defending, said his client accepted that a custodial sentence was ‘inevitable’, but he argued that the length of the sentence was ‘excessive’. He said: ‘It is clear from the footage he did not think through or plan the assault.’
Advocate Harrison said Ward was displaying symptoms of schizophrenia at the time, and the footage showed his ‘responses were paranoid’. He said there was a period of four months when Ward ‘was not fit to plead’.
In relation to the offences on 12 July, Ward was sentenced to one month for breach of the peace and three months for violently resisting arrest. These sentences will run concurrently. For the 31 July offences, he was sentenced to two years and nine months for grave and criminal assault, six months for two counts of malicious damage, and six years for violently resisting arrest. These sentences will also run concurrently. The offences on the two indictments will run consecutively for a total of three years’ imprisonment.
Mr MacRae warned that assaults on officers carrying out their duties carried substantial prison sentences. Jurats Collette Crill, Kim Averty and Gareth Hughes were sitting.
Following the sentencing, Chief Inspector Chris Beechey said: ‘The States of Jersey Police take a zero-tolerance approach to any violence towards their officers, who should be able to carry out their duties without being threatened or assaulted. We’re grateful to the courts for providing a sentence that reflects the severity of this crime.’
