Beaten PC: I believe in automatic prison terms for those who attack officers

A female officer attacked four times on the beat has slammed the “soft sentences” given to criminals who attack the police in the line of duty.

On the last occasion, PC Alice Nicholas – a former beauty queen – was chased by a drunken man armed with a machete.

The Devon and Cornwall Police officer described how she was threatened by a man who repeatedly gesticulated he would cut her throat with the enormous knife.

In her six years as a response officer, she has been punched in the face by a man; rugby tackled by his pal; and bitten on the leg by another man, leaving her scarred.

Each time the offender only received a suspended sentence.

Now she is calling for mandatory prison sentences for those who attack police, and is campaigning for all officers to be trained to use Tasers.

PC Nicholas, from St Austell in Cornwall, said: “I have been a police officer now for nearly seven years and at that time I felt helpless myself.

“How am I supposed to keep the public safe when there`s kids in the street and there`s a man with a machete threatening violence? I did at that time feel very vulnerable.

Speaking out about how officers should be trained to use Tasers, she added: “My commander is really keen to highlight the dangers that police are facing at the moment because he wants all officers to be Taser trained.

“We should regularly carry them, because they are a useful piece of equipment. I feel frustrated that courts do tend to go with the lower end of the scale with sentences.

“I know there`s a big problem with prison overcrowding but at the end of the day if there`s the opportunity to send someone to prison I think that should be done to act as a deterrent.

“I do feel that if a police officer is assaulted it should be an automatic prison sentence.”

PC Nicholas went to social media this week to describe the full horror of the machete attack more than a year after it took place.

Truro Crown Court heard the offender, Michael Peek, 27, had been drinking for seven hours when he got into a confrontation with a neighbour in St Austell, in September 2014.

Writing about the incident on Twitter, PC Nicholas recalled how the man – who had experience in martial arts – chased her and a colleague with the horrific weapon.

She said: “It was 5pm in the summer holidays and children were out playing. The offender was initially calm but then threatened to kill me.

“He chased me and my colleague with a machete and repeatedly gesticulated that he was going to slit my throat. He was well practised in martial arts.

“My colleague couldn`t see as his captor canister had leaked. I had no Taser, neither did any of my colleagues who were miles away rushing to the scene after hearing an urgent call.

“All I could do was ask for armed response and hope for the best. He was persuaded to put the machete down and I managed to get him lying on the floor. He stayed there until others arrived.

“He was arrested and when on his feet he lunged at an officer’s face trying to bite him. He went to court. His punishment was a suspended sentence!”

Peek was sentenced to eight months in prison, suspended for two years, and ordered to carry out 180 hours` unpaid work.

And a deflated PC Nicholas added: “It`s quite disappointing to see him not get a prison sentence because for me it teaches the kids who were watching that that behaviour is ok, that you`re not going to receive much of a punishment.”

Tweeting a picture of injuries she has received at work — including a black eye and a bruised leg — she left the caption: “54 officers are attacked daily in UK.”

In 2012, PC Nicholas swapped her truncheon for a sparkling tiara in a nationwide beauty pageant.

She went from the beat to the catwalk to take the Miss Cornwall crown – defeating 29 other contestants – and book a place in the Miss England finals.