A POLICE officer who had his throat slashed by a drug dealer has spoken of his relief after his attacker was jailed for five years.
Aaron Gray attacked the Cleveland Police officer when he tried to arrest him in Middlesbrough town centre in June last year.
He suffered a four-inch slash to his throat when the 31-year-old pulled a knife on him while he pinned to the ground by two other men
The officer, who has asked not to be identified, said: “You walk into this job to an unknown risk every single day. But it has taken this to happen to me to realise the true danger of what is out there, who’s out there, and to always be on your guard – you can’t slip up ever because it could be fatal.”
Following the attack, Gray fled from the area and an urgent manhunt got underway, with the suspect being arrested in Newcastle on June 23.
He was charged that night with assault occasioning actual bodily harm, and with possession of an offensive weapon.
The officer said: “It’s one of those things you never think is going to happen to you. But my initial thought was, when he’s on top of me, when I see the knife, that I was going to die, genuinely believing it was game over.”
Fortunately, the officer made a full recovery from the four-inch cut to his throat, but he said he is a “lot more cautious now, especially when I’m going out single-crewed, as to what could happen”.
Unsurprisingly he was psychologically affected by the attack, but says he received a lot of help and support, especially through Trauma Risk Management (TRiM).
The officer added: “After the incident I was referred straight for a TRiM meeting to discuss the event and how it affected me. And I spent a bit of time with the force’s wellbeing department and received counselling after the incident. That was helpful, because it helped me to get a few other things off my chest as well.
“I would always say to someone, if they’ve experienced a traumatic incident like that, just take the support that the force offers, it does make a difference.”
The officer said he was pleased with the court’s sentencing and that it had given him a sense of closure.
He said: “When I heard that [Gray] was sentenced to five years, I was not only relieved that there was closure to it, but I was pleased because five years is a hefty amount of time. A lot can change in five years, and that’s a lot of time for someone to reflect.”
Gray, of Albany Street, Middlesbrough, pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm and possession of an offensive weapon and was jailed for five years.
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