Lengthy sentence for man who `nearly killed` officers in coping stone attack

A man who threw a coping stone off a bridge and through the windscreen of a passing police car has been jailed for eight years after a court heard he could have killed the officers in the vehicle.

Jason Gamble, 45, who bore a grudge against the police, hurled the flat brick from above Coventry ring road.

The officers in the car, a sergeant and a constable, were en route to reports of a robbery near the city’s train station just before midnight on February 15 last year.

The stone smashed a hole through the centre of the windscreen, narrowly missing the officers, but leaving both with facial cuts from flying glass; one later needed glass fragments removing from his eyes.

Warwick Crown Court heard Gamble had a grievance against the police following his arrest at a Coventry City football match in January 2015 for throwing a bottle onto the pitch and that he blamed the authorities for a social care matter that restricted access to his children.

Speaking after the sentencing on Monday (January 11) West Midlands Police Detective Inspector Stuart Bell said it was “beyond comprehension” that police officers should come under attack in this way in the line of duty.

“This was a serious attack on officers in a marked police car, given the size of the coping stone and the impact it made on the car, it’s incredibly fortunate neither officer was seriously hurt,” he said.

“I am grateful to everyone who came forward with information to support our investigation and pleased the court has recognised the seriousness of Gamble’s actions by handing him a lengthy jail term.”

After identifying Gamble through CCTV footage detectives found anti-police messages on his mobile phone.

Further investigation revealed he was arrested two weeks earlier for kicking a wing mirror off a police car.

In December a jury took just two hours to find him guilty of endangering the lives of police officers.