A SOUTHAMPTON teenager is behind bars after an incident in which a police car was hijacked by a man who had just been arrested.

The 16-year-old was sent to a young offender's institution for eight months sentence after admitting seven offences, including theft, burglary and escaping from lawful custody.

It follows an incident involving the boy and an older accomplice.

As reported in the Daily Echo, Nathanual Hemy, was sitting in the back of a police 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, Southampton Crown Court was told.

After making off in the vehicle Hemy drove through a residential part of Southampton at speeds of almost 70mph 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.

Robert Griffiths, prosecuting, said Hemy and his accomplice dumped the vehicle and ran off but were later caught.

Hemy, 20, of Keynsham Road, Southampton, 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.”

The officer and a colleague were on duty when they spotted the motorbike and noticed the rider was not wearing a crash helmet.

The 16-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was Hemy's pillion passenger.

Appearing at Southampton Youth Court on Monday he pleaded guilty to seven offences - taking a vehicle without consent, attempting to burgle an address at Orpen Road, Southampton, burgling a property at Wilderness Heights, Southampton, handling stolen goods, allowing himself to be carried in a stolen vehicle, breaching a conditional discharge and escaping from lawful custody.

A police spokesman said the charge of escaping from lawful custody related to the incident involving the police vehicle on September 11 last year.

He added: "Two police officers in an unmarked car stopped a motorcycle that had been reported stolen from an address in Fareham.

"The rider and his pillion passenger, were detained and placed in the back of a police car. However, the man managed to get control of the vehicle and drove off.

"After evading police custody on September 11 the 16-year-old was arrested and charged on October 2."