A POLICE officer has won praise from the public and her superiors for helping protect a vulnerable member of the public at a football match.

Detective Constable Lauren Somerville, an officer with Cleveland Police for nearly six years, was on duty before Middlesbrough's football match against Leeds United on Sunday (September 27) when she noticed shouting and pushing between rival sets of fans on Windward Way in Middlesbrough.

There was no violence but a man police describe as vulnerable approached her to say he was frightened.

DC Somerville, 29, who has a little sister with learning difficulties, said: “I immediately realised this was a vulnerable man so I told him to stay behind me and to hang on to me, which he certainly did.

"We walked with the crowd along Windward Way but I realised he wouldn’t be able to keep up so we held back and I reassured him he had done exactly the right thing by identifying someone who could help him."

The pair then walked to the crossroads at Bridge Street East where the man had intended to catch the bus home but he remained afraid so DC Somerville, who has been widely praised on social media and who knew of the man due to her involvement on the committee of a club he attends, invited him to wait at Middlehaven where colleagues made him a hot drink and then she even took him home.

“It is nice to be thanked for what I did,” said DC Somerville. “But as a police officer it is just what you do. It’s a shame that people who cause disorder at the match don’t pause for a minute to think about how it affects other people."

Deputy Chief Constable Iain Spittal said: “This incident showed policing at its best."