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This is the first picture PC Stuart Outten who is recovering in hospital today after almost being scalped in a machete attack
This is the first picture of the hero police officer who Tasered and arrested a machete-wielding thug despite almost being scalped and suffering deep wounds to his neck and fingers.
PC Stuart Outten has been branded the ‘hardest cop in Britain’ after he knocked out the attacker who pulled the giant blade when he was stopped in his uninsured van in Leyton, east London yesterday.
Today his family said they are ‘incredibly proud of the bravery’ PC Outten had shown and they are ‘thankful’ he is recovering in Royal London Hospital.
They said in a statement released by Scotland Yard: ‘His injuries could have been fatal and we are thankful that he is stable and recovering in hospital with his loved ones around him.
‘Stuart joined the Met straight from school and loves being a police officer and protecting the public. Although there are risks associated with his job, we would never have expected something like this to happen. We are so grateful to the London Ambulance Service paramedics and hospital staff for their care and compassion’.
PC Outten is understood to have had an operation this morning to re-attach tendons in one hand after they were sliced as he tried to protect himself.
Extraordinary footage of the incident shows the West Ham fan from Grays in Essex on his back as the suspect hammers down his machete, lacerating his victim’s upper body, slicing the side of his head to the bone and almost severing his fingers.
The bleeding police officer can be heard yelling: ‘Help I’ve been stabbed’ but still manages to pull his Taser and fire it into the knifeman who he pins down and arrests despite his own severe injuries.
He also hurls the machete away from the man allegedly trying to kill him before using a radio to call paramedics as blood poured from his head and hands saying: ‘I need an ambulance now. I’ve been stabbed with a machete.’
Today 56-year-old Muhammad Rodwan of Luton appeared at Thames Magistrates’ court charged with attempted murder of the police officer. He is also charged with possession of an offensive weapon.
Rodwan appeared in handcuffs wearing a grey prison tracksuit with a greying beard and medium length hair where prosecutor Varinder Hayre said: ‘It was an unexpected, unprovoked, repeated brutal attack with a machete on a police officer who was simply conducting a police officer’s duty.’
Pc Outten, 28, fought off the man accused of trying to kill him and Muhammad Rodwan, 56, who is charged with the attempted murder appeared at Thames Magistrates’ Court this morning (sketched in the dock)
This is the horrifying moment a police officer was slashed with a machete by a man pulled over for driving without insurance
Despite suffering wounds to his head, body and arms the police officer turned the tables on his attacker – shooting him with his Taser and pinning him down in an extraordinary arrest
PC’s boss: Brutal machete attack shows criminals don’t ‘fear’ police and knife crime sentences must be toughened up
PC Stuart Outten commanding officer, Detective Chief Superintendent Richard Tucker (pictured right), said the attack was ‘a symptom of people having less fear of the police’.
He said the policeman had made a routine vehicle stop after spotting an uninsured van. He and a woman colleague chased the vehicle with their lights and sirens on for around a minute before it stopped.
As officers tried to stop him driving off again, the driver pulled out a machete and began the onslaught, which Mr Tucker described as ‘frenzied, unprovoked, shocking’.
Mr Tucker paid tribute to the injured officer, saying: ‘He told me he was OK, but that’s the type of character he is – he is an amazing police officer.’
He added: ‘I’ve been in police for a long time – there’s certainly a sense of a lack of respect, not just for police but for authority.’
He also called for harsher sentences for knife crime against officers.
No application for bail was made during the 10 minute hearing and judge Adrian Turner remanded the defendant in custody until September 6.
Today it was revealed that PC Outten’s police officer girlfriend rushed to the scene after a colleague told her the man she loves was the victim. The woman, who calls herself a ‘third-generation cop’, told friends how her ‘world fell apart’.
At 5am yesterday in a social media post believed to have been sent from his hospital bedside his girlfriend said: ‘Heartbroken can’t even explain tonight’s events. My world fell apart. Words can’t fill the thoughts I feel. Best wishes everyone, keep safe and remember to always have your colleagues’ back.’
She went with him to the Royal London Hospital, where he is in a serious but stable condition as he recovers after surgery. Only hours after the attack, he was able to speak, telling his boss and family: ‘I’m okay.’
His commanding officer Detective Chief Superintendent Richard Tucker has warned yesterday’s brutal knifing is ‘a symptom of people having less fear of the police’ and he also called for harsher prison terms for knife crime against officers, admitting: ‘I do get frustrated sometimes at the sentencing.’
The attack in East London was the latest incident in the city, which has been hit in recent months by spiralling levels of violence. Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised ‘tough sentencing for those who carry knives’ as he led tributes to the victim.
The officer was injured as he tried to fight off a knifeman with his Taser after he stopped a vehicle in east London around midnight yesterday.
Quick-thinking witnesses can be seen holding up material to the policeman’s head in a desperate attempt to stop the flow of blood.
In other pictures a huddle of police officers can be seen next to their fallen comrade, desperately trying to stop him bleeding to death after the ferocious attack. Just a few feet away – officers have pinned the attacker to the ground.
Another picture shows a policeman holding the horrifying 12in blade that was used in the onslaught.
More than ten officers (one pictured at the scene carrying the machete away) battled to save the officer’s life as he lay motionless, his uniform, which had been cut off, lying next to him
In another extraordinary image a police officer comforts a witness to the machete attack by hugging them in the back of a police van
A van, believed to have been driven by the attacker, is loaded at the scene in Leyton, east London, where it was pulled over in an insurance check
The road in east London was stained with blood after the incident that shocked Britain overnight yesterday
Yesterday witnesses told of the ferocity of the assault on the innocent policeman, who has served with the Met for ten years.
One 32-year-old woman who saw the stabbing and its aftermath said: ‘His head was completely open, it looked like the guy had tried to scalp him.
‘I heard banging and screaming outside so ran to the window and saw the policeman with the stab wounds in the head.
‘It was incredible, he was on the ground but was able to Taser the guy. He was on his hands and knees but was zapping him. What a tough guy, amazing.
‘I think he realised he was bleeding heavily and badly injured so rolled over on to the ground after a while. Then another police car came. The police jumped on the attacker, pinning him down but… he was still screaming and resisting.
‘They had to get their knees on him to stop him wriggling free. There was so much blood on the road. I’m astonished he has survived this.’
Neighbour Shabaz Choudry said: ‘The guy came from the back from his truck and stabbed him in his hand. It was like a sword.’
Another witness described the officer screaming as he was attacked, saying: ‘The guy just launched himself at the cop, hacked at his face completely out of nowhere. I’m in shock.’
In graphic scenes, passers-by were filmed rushing to save the heroic policeman as officers pinned his attacker to the ground
Feet away, more than ten officers and paramedics battled to save the officer’s life as he lay motionless, his uniform, which had been cut off, lying next to him.
PC Outten, pictured with his mother Karen, has been branded ‘Britain’s hardest cop’ after his heroics yesterday
The officer, who has been with the force for ten years, is expected to make a full recovery. Only hours after the attack, he was able to speak, telling his boss and family from his hospital bed: ‘I’m okay.’
Yesterday, his commanding officer, Detective Chief Superintendent Richard Tucker, said the officer, who Scotland Yard are not naming, made a routine stop after spotting an uninsured van being driven by a man in his 50s.
He and a female colleague chased the van for around a minute before the driver stopped. As officers tried to prevent him driving off again, the driver pulled out a machete and launched his attack.
‘It was frenzied, unprovoked, shocking,’ Mr Tucker said. ‘Unfortunately, it’s not uncommon. This is a particularly nasty event but I would say there’s always a threat being a police officer. I’ve been in the police for a long time – there’s a sense of a lack of respect, not just for police but for authority.
‘I honestly believe that using that Taser may have saved his life. I would like to commend his bravery, resilience and determination. Despite being repeatedly stabbed, his first thought was to protect his colleague and the public.’
Residents in the area took to Twitter to share images of the scene as the officer appears to be treated
This morning there was a blood stain pictured on the road at the scene of the attack in Leyton (pictured above)
Graphic pictures posted on Twitter appear to show the injured officer seconds after fighting off the knifeman, on his hands and knees, blood pouring from his face as he stared in shock at the wounds in the hand in which he had held his Taser. A number of onlookers rushed to help.
Within minutes more than ten officers and paramedics had arrived to help the policeman as he lay motionless, with parts of his uniform cut off and lying on the ground next to him.
Witness, Muhammad Faisal, 31, said: ‘We saw someone lying on the road. We didn’t see the wound, but we saw a lot of blood.
‘I saw one police officer was holding a knife. It was a machete – around a foot long.’
Mr Faisal said he prayed for the officer’s survival, adding: ‘The first thought was maybe the man lying on the floor had lost his life.
‘It makes you think because it was a police officer – people on the road for our safety.
After back up was called to the area officers can be seen stood around as PC Outten is treated on the floor by paramedics
The map above shows the area in Leyton, east London where the officer was attacked after doing a routine vehicle stop
‘It gives you an emotional feeling as well. That’s why we stayed to make sure he’s alive. All this time they were providing first aid, or trying to stop the bleeding and giving him CPR.
‘The first time we saw him moving his leg and speaking to his colleagues was after about five to seven minutes.’
Just a few feet away, three officers held down the knifeman, yelling at him: ‘Stop protesting, be quiet’.
As he fought, one officer was seen struggling to bring the groaning motorist under control before he was led away to a police van.
Elsewhere, a weeping woman officer who witnessed the attack was seen being comforted by a colleague. CCTV from a nearby garage showed how she narrowly avoided injury by swiftly stepping back when the knifeman swung his machete at her colleague.
Yesterday a resident who lives near the scene, said: ‘It seems to be happening every other week that someone is stabbed or attacked. If something like this can happen then how can you feel safe?’
Figures show knife crime in England and Wales hit a record high this year, up 8 per cent on the previous year. The Prime Minister, who has already pledged to put another 20,000 officers on the street, responded yesterday by pledging tougher sentences and a stop and search knife crackdown.
Mr Johnson said of the attack: ‘My sympathies are with the officer and his family.’
London Mayor Sadiq Khan said: ‘I am utterly appalled by this sickening attack on a serving Met police officer. We will use all the resources at our disposal to ensure the perpetrator of this heinous attack is brought to justice.’
- A 56-year-old man has been charged with attempted murder after a policeman was stabbed in the head. Muhammed Rodwan, 56, from Luton, is also charged with possession of an offensive weapon after an attack in Leyton, east London, at around midnight on Thursday.
Johnson urged to get a grip on knife crime epidemic after policeman stabbing
Boris Johnson was urged to get a grip on the knife crime epidemic yesterday after a policeman was stabbed in the head with a machete.
The 28-year-old constable was knifed repeatedly with a foot-long blade after pulling over a van driver suspected of having no insurance.
As the officer bravely grappled with the assailant, who sliced open his face and slashed his hands in a frenzy, the heroic policeman managed to fire his Taser at him, saving his own life.
The attack in Leyton, East London, shone a spotlight on the spiralling levels of violence gripping the country.
The Prime Minister came under pressure to tackle the crisis as a group of young people whose lives have been blighted by knife crime delivered a letter to No 10 warning ‘our generation is dying’. In other developments:
■ A Scotland Yard chief said the machete attack on an officer was ‘a symptom of people having less fear of the police’ amid soaring levels of violence;
■ Mr Johnson promised ‘tough sentencing for those who carry knives’ as he led tributes to the victim;
■ Figures emerged showing the number of women carrying knives has risen by 73 per cent in the last five years;
■ Home Office statistics showed how knife crime has risen by up to 50 per cent in rural areas in the past year as it spread from cities.
What is a Taser and how do they work?
Tasers – or conductive electrical devices (CEDs) – are weapons with a 50,000-volt electrical charge and temporarily incapacitate a person, in most cases causing them freeze and fall to the ground.
They are battery-powered and when fired two metal barbs connected to the weapon by a thin wire pierce the skin before the charge is delivered.
Similar in shape to a pistol, once discharged the electrical current interferes with the neuromuscular system within the body, which in turn should subdue an individual.
Police officer pictured above with an X2 taser which was used in the attack in Leyton
According to the City of London Police website, when the Taser current travels across the human body, the peak voltage drops to 1,200.
In England and Wales both the Taser X26 and the Taser X2 have been authorised by the Home Office for use by specially trained officers in England and Wales.
It was announced in December 2014 that production and sales of the X26 model would be discontinued by the American company behind the weapon.
As a result, in 2017 the Home Office gave the go-ahead for use of the X2 model as a replacement, which unlike the X26 can be fired twice if it misses or does not subdue the target on the first go.
According to the Metropolitan Police it was the X2 used by the officer in the incident in Leyton, east London, on Thursday.
Last night the officer attacked with the machete was said to be a serious but stable condition as he recovers after surgery at the Royal London Hospital in East London.
Witnesses told how he was slashed three times in the cheek and hands. One 32-year-old woman said the victim was covered in so much blood it ‘looked like he had been scalped’.
Incredibly, the officer, who has been with Scotland Yard for ten years, is expected to make a full recovery despite his injuries. Just hours after the attack, he was able to speak about his ordeal, telling his boss and family from his hospital bed: ‘I’m OK.’
Yesterday his commanding officer, Detective Chief Superintendent Richard Tucker, said the attack was ‘a symptom of people having less fear of the police’. He said the policeman, whom Scotland Yard are not naming, had made a routine vehicle stop after spotting an uninsured van. He and a woman colleague chased the vehicle with their lights and sirens on for around a minute before it stopped.
As officers tried to stop him driving off again, the driver pulled out a machete and began the onslaught, which Mr Tucker described as ‘frenzied, unprovoked, shocking’.
Mr Tucker paid tribute to the injured officer, saying: ‘He told me he was OK, but that’s the type of character he is – he is an amazing police officer.’
He added: ‘I’ve been in police for a long time – there’s certainly a sense of a lack of respect, not just for police but for authority.’ He called for harsher sentences for knife crime against officers.
A group of six young people whose have lost friends and family in stabbings called on Mr Johnson to make the knife crime crisis his ‘top priority’.
Delivering a letter to Downing Street, signed by more than 100 young people, they presented a manifesto on how the streets could be made safer. This included a demand for more community policing and action to tackle the underlying causes of violent crime, such as a lack of housing, youth services and jobs.
The group wrote to the Prime Minister: ‘More and more of our generation are still dying. More needs to be done, as soon as possible.’
One of the campaigners, Zak Hall, 24, from Redbridge in East London, lost a friend last year when he was stabbed in London and both of his brothers have also been victims of knife attacks. He said: ‘Some just feel it’s the new reality. But it needs to stop, it’s so dangerous.’
Official figures show knife crime in England and Wales hit a record high this year, up eight per cent on the previous year. Police recorded more than 43,000 incidents involving knives or sharp objects in the year to March, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics.
Mr Johnson, who has already pledged to put another 20,000 officers on the street, responded yesterday by pledging tougher sentences and a stop and search crackdown.
Last night a man of 56 arrested on suspicion of grievous bodily harm was being questioned over the attack.
Sharp rise in the number of women and girls caught carrying knives as offences soar by 10 per cent a year since 2014
The amount of women and girls involved in knife possession offences has risen by 10 per cent each year since 2014.
Over 1,500 offences were recorded in 2018, which amounts to an increase of 73 per cent over the last five years.
It comes as youth workers in the UK have revealed that some women carry weapons for gangs as they are less likely to be stopped by the police.
The amount of women and girls involved in knife crime has risen by 10 per cent each year since 214 (stock image shows table full of knives)
New data has suggested that women are often made to carry weapons as they are less likely to be stopped by police
Youngsters call on Prime Minister Boris Johnson to take urgent action on knife crime
Young people have called on Boris Johnson to take urgent action to tackle the knife crime crisis and make it a ‘top priority’.
Six youngsters who experienced first-hand the trauma caused by violence with the weapons have demanded a meeting with him after compiling an action plan of how to prevent more young lives being lost.
Labour Party MP Sarah Jones (L) poses with young people affected by knife crime as they deliver a letter to Downing Street
Delivering a letter to Downing Street on Thursday, which was signed by more than 100 young people, they also presented the 12-point manifesto on what they think would make the streets safer.
In the letter, the youngsters said: ‘More and more of our generation are still dying.
‘More needs to be done, as soon as possible. As Prime Minister we need you to make this problem your top priority.’
They worked with the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Knife Crime, as well as youth charities Barnardo’s and Redthread, on a report entitled There is No Protection on the Streets, None, as part of their campaign.
The manifesto includes calls to tackle what the group believe are underlying causes of violent crime, such as lack of housing, youth services and jobs, as well as a bid for more community police officers to build relationships in neighbourhoods.
Campaigner Zak Hall, 24, from Redbridge in east London, said urgent action was needed to tackle the ‘vile culture’ of knife crime that is ‘creeping in’.
Police figures show that between 2014 and 2018 there had been more than 5,800 recorded knife possession crimes involving women.
The data, revealed by the BBC, comes as youngsters from across the country call on Prime Minister Boris Johnson to do something about the knife crime epidemic in the UK.
This is while on a wider scale, knife crime has also gone up nationally after a spate of stabbings across the country.
Figures show that stabbings reached their highest level from 1946 after it was recorded that there were 285 killings by a knife or sharp instrument in the 12 months ending March 2018.
Data from 38 forces out of 39 in England showed almost a quarter of all offences involved girls under the age of 18, with the youngest found carrying a knife being just seven-years-old.
Police in London recorded a 52 per cent increase over five years, with 916 recorded offences from 2014 to 2018.
This is while Merseyside Police saw a 54 per cent rise, to 499 offences, while the number of offences in Greater Manchester doubled, with 95 recorded offences last year.
Elsewhere in South Yorkshire, there had been a 82 per cent rise over the same time period, with 248 offences.
One community worker, who was a former gang leader in south London said there are ‘girls that stab’.
Jennifer Blake said: ‘For some women it’s a normal thing to have in your bag, like lipstick.
‘We have got girls that stab, but it’s just like the elephant in the room. No-one wants to talk about it because no one knows how to deal with it.
‘Everywhere you go you have problems with girls and their identity, their self-worth and those are the vulnerable ones that boys end up picking up.
‘Knife, guns, drugs – they are the couriers for it. They’re not going to get stopped by police, and the men know that.’
The Home Office recently said it would be investing £220 million into steering both young men and young women away from violent crime.
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