A POLICE officer was dragged along a Hampshire road after his patrol car was hijacked by a man who had just been arrested.

Nathanual Hemy, who had taken drugs, was sitting in the back of the powerful BMW when he locked the vehicle from inside and scrambled into the driving seat.

PC Paul Tarr tried to stop him getting away but was pulled along by the car and lost his footing.

After making off in the vehicle Hemy drove through a residential part of Southampton at speeds of up to 69mph as children walked home from school.

 

PC Tarr suffered grazing and bruising to various parts of his body and was taken to Southampton General Hospital.

Appearing at Southampton Crown Court Hemy, pictured, admitted seven offences, including dangerous driving, and was jailed for a total of one year and ten months.

Recorder Robert Bright QC told him: “You used the car as a weapon to injure PC Tarr.”

Describing the events that followed he added: “You overtook and undertook vehicles at speed and also came close to hitting a mother with a baby carrier, apparently with the baby inside it.

“It was a residential area with many vulnerable people.”

PC Tarr and a colleague were driving along Chalk Hill, Southampton, on September 11 when they spotted an oncoming motorbike and noticed neither Hemy nor his pillion passenger were wearing crash helmets.

Robert Griffiths, prosecuting, said Hemy and his passenger dumped the vehicle a short distance away and ran off but were caught soon afterwards.

After being put in the back of the police car Hemy seized the controls. PC Tarr managed to get the driver’s door open but was dragged along.

Police “flooded” the area as they searched for the unmarked car, which was found ten minutes later near Charles Watts Way, the court heard.

Hemy, 20, of Keynsham Road, Southampton, admitted taking a vehicle without consent, escaping from lawful custody, aggravated vehicle taking, assault causing actual bodily harm, dangerous driving and two counts of disqualified driving.

He had a long list of previous convictions for offences including robbery, dangerous driving and possessing drugs with intent to supply.

Charles Watts Way (pic: Google Maps)Charles Watts Way (pic: Google Maps)

The defendant committed his first crime just a day after his tenth birthday.

In the 2013 Hemy, then aged 15, was jailed for three-and-a-half years for his part in a terrifying robbery in which staff at a Hampshire corner shop were threatened with a meat cleaver and a knife.

He was represented at the latest hearing by Jyoti Wood, who said he was “genuinely remorseful”.

She added: “He started to slip when old friends got in touch and he - in his words - lost himself.”