Moment mother-of-3 police officer rushes to defend man being beaten 'to a pulp' by baying gang
CAERNARFON, WALES: A female police officer and mother of three, Clare Larkey-Jones, 48, has won a trip to London and has been nominated for a Police Federation Bravery Award for single-handedly stopping a gang beating up a defenseless man.
Larkey-Jones began her policing career at the age of 25 and spent 22 years as a frontline officer before becoming a Sexual Offences Liaison Officer on the force's Amethyst Team. The event occurred when she was on her way home after an 11-hour shift on January 3 when she saw the group assaulting a man in his 20s, according to DailyMail. She told, as quoted by Daily Post, “I had just finished an 11-hour shift and was picking my brother and his girlfriend up at The Maes in Caernarfon before going home when I heard a lot of shouting. I told my brother to stay in the car and I walked over and a gang of lads was picking on a young man in his 20s.” She added, “They were like a pack of wild animals and started beating him up. They stopped when I came over but then they started again. I just went on auto-pilot and got hold of the ring-leader [Callum Lee Davies], shouted at them and pulled him off before they ran away and then called the police and ambulance.” As per DailyMail, the victim was then taken to hospital with a 3 cm cut to his face, along with bruising and swelling to his eye.
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According to a Daily Post report, a trial at Caernarfon Crown Court heard that Larkey-Jones grabbed ringleader Davies, who was already serving a prison term and got 12 months' further imprisonment for assault, "mid-punch. Judge Nicola Jones said, “Thankfully, PC Clare Larkey-Jones, who was off duty that evening, with no thought for her own safety, clearly thinking only of restoring order, intervened. She got in the middle of all of these men who were behaving violently. She very clearly and robustly sent everybody on their way."
Responding to her bravery, which got her honored at 10 Downing Street along with the London trip with her husband, an electrical engineer Gareth, and a nomination for Police Bravery Awards, Larkey-Jones said, "I just knew there was something not right going on there and I thought if that were one of my boys was getting beaten up I would like to think that someone would do the same as I did. I honestly didn’t think anything of it at the time. I just don’t like to see people being bullied. My husband asked me why I did it and it was because it was the right thing to do.”
The officer, who is from Nefyn and has a BA in Criminology at Bangor University, has recently volunteered with Women’s Aid as a student. She said, "We deal with rapes and serious sexual assaults – the detective deals with the suspect and I deal with and support the victim." She added, "I’ve always enjoyed the variety of being a police officer."