Kent News - 'Scum' attackers to walk free while PC needs 24-hour care

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'Scum' attackers to walk free while PC needs 24-hour care

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Daniel Coffill with his parents

It was a night out with friends that went tragically wrong for off-duty policeman Daniel Coffill.

The Metropolitan Police constable had left a Bromley nightclub early with three women in July, 2005, when he was approached by teenagers Daniel-Lance Samuels and Jack Turner.

The pair asked him for a light for a cannabis joint, but when he refused, they savagely beat him, putting him into a coma.

PC Coffill, who had only just finished his police probationary period at the time of the attack, is now in a persistent vegetative state.

He once had a bright future, but now needs round-the-clock care at his parents' home in Kent. Turner, 17, of Eltham, and Samuels, 18, of Bromley, were last year jailed for grievous bodily harm with intent for nine and eight years respectively.

But a new court judgement has added insult to injury for PC Coffill's family.

The Court of Appeal has slashed Turner's jail term to seven years and Samuels' sentence to six years. They could walk free in three years.

The pair were also originally told they would serve four years on licence when they were released, so they would be sent back to jail if they re-offended. That has been overturned.

Ann Widdecombe, Tory MP for Maidstone and The Weald, was shocked by the decision to reduce the pair's jail terms.

The former prisons minister said: "It does seem to me a little odd that when somebody is all but dead, what was a properly-considered sentence at the time should be cut.

"It doesn't send much of a message of deterrence out to criminals if the result of doing something as horrendous as that is actually to get a cut in your sentence."

Ms Widdecombe said that there didn't seem to be much consistency with many prison sentences.

"It varies tremendously. Sometimes they're ridiculous and sometimes they seem unduly harsh and sometimes they seem about right."

Turner and Samuels were jailed last July for the attack on PC Coffill, which was in Queen's Road, Bromley. During the trial, Judge John Tanzer described the pair as "devoid of the most basic concept of morality".

Turner had punched PC Coffill to the ground and medical evidence indicates he received several blows all over his body. The pair were later heard bragging about their attack on a bus.

But the thugs managed to appeal against their sentences after lawyers successfully argued they were "excessive".

Mrs Justice Linda Dobbs, who allowed the appeals, said: "We're mindful of the devastating impact this incident has had, both on the victim and on his family.

"It cannot be said that this was not a nasty, vicious attack."

The ruling has horrified PC Coffill's family and other police officers.

Margaret Gardhouse, 50, gave up her job as an office manager and converted the sitting room of her Maidstone home into a bedroom for her injured son.

She said: "My life has completely changed but Daniel's life is so precarious now. He hasn't even got his dignity.

"He could start choking at any minute. We just have to do the best we can."

PC Coffill is unable to talk, breathes through a hole in his throat and is fed through a tube in his stomach.

His father, Len, 55, who owns a printing firm, said: "I cannot understand why the judges have agreed that scum like this should be freed early.

"Daniel had everything in front of him: a career, a girlfriend and a great future. Now he is lying here, like a baby but without even a baby's ability to communicate."

Peter Smyth, of the Metropolitan Police Federation, said: "The decision to reduce the sentences of Daniel's attackers will be abhorrent not only to police officers but to law abiding people everywhere."

POSTED: 18/03/2007 06:00:00