Teenager who deliberately drove car at PC detained

A teenager who ran over a police officer and then “cowardly” sped away from the scene has been sentenced.

Harvey Bell, 19, deliberately drove at PC Tracy Hallworth, knocking her to the ground before running over her legs with both sets of wheels.

It happened after the uniformed officer from Greater Manchester Police (GMP) and a male colleague were responding to reports of four men taking drugs in a black Audi at a Sainsbury’s car park in Cheadle at about 23:30 GMT on 25 January.

PC Hallworth, 54, lost consciousness and suffered a dislocated kneecap and a wound to her wrist. Bell, who handed himself in the following day, was detained for two years and seven months.

Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court heard how, as the officers approached, Bell revved the Audi’s engine and then reversed a short distance away before PC Hallworth stood 6.5ft (2m) in front of the vehicle and ordered him to stop.

Bell ignored her as he revved the engine again and accelerated forward with no attempt to change direction, prosecutor Sacha Waxman said.

PC Hallworth was taken to hospital and spent a fortnight off work and although she had recovered from her physical injuries the psychological impact remained, the court heard.

In a statement read to the court, PC Hallworth said: “Bell drove off not knowing if I was dead or alive.

“It haunts me that if I fell the other way he would have gone over my head and I might not be here.

“I will never forgive Bell for the upset he caused my family. What he did to me is permanently in the back of my mind on every job I go to.

“Thanks to the support of my family and my GMP family, Bell has not been able to take away the thing I love most, my job as a police officer.

“An attack on a police officer is an attack on us all.”

Bell, of previous good character, was said by his barrister Rebecca Penfold to have expressed his “significant remorse”.

However, Judge Jenny Lester-Ashworth noted that was “at odds” with his pre-sentence report which said he felt a “sense of injustice” at being held on remand in custody since he handed himself in the following day.

She told him: “You must have known you had hit her but you cowardly left the scene. You could have killed her.”

Bell, from Knutsford in Cheshire, who will serve his sentence in a Young Offender Institution, was also banned from driving for two years and ordered to take an extended retest.

Following the sentencing, Victoria Agullo, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “Assaults against frontline officers are totally unacceptable and today’s sentence for Harvey Bell should leave those who would use a car as a weapon in no doubt that they will face the full force of the law.”