Bexleyheath policeman who arrested axe-wielding man receives award (From News Shopper)

Bexleyheath policeman who arrested axe-wielding man receives award

3:47pm Friday 15th March 2013 in News By Alan Woods

A POLICE officer from Bexleyheath who arrested an axe-wielding man on the Underground has received an award.

PC Steven Donnelly was today presented with a Certificate of Commendation for his bravery during the incident in June 2011, which later saw a man jailed for four years.

He was on duty in West Ham with PC Tabatha Virdee - who received the same award - when they saw a man self-harming on the edge of a platform at Bromley by Bow station.

The same man had previously been brandishing the axe at passengers on board an Underground train at West Ham station, in a “highly animated and dangerous state.”

Stockwell-based Inspector John Sanderson, who was on his way home from work at the time, managed to wrestle the axe from the grip of the man during a violent struggle but he fled the scene.

PC’s Donnelly and Virdee approached the man on the platform and saw he was also in possession of a flammable liquid and a lighter.

The pair acted immediately and after a struggle, detained the man.

It later transpired the suspect had inappropriately touched a female passenger at Stepney Green station earlier on the same day.

He was charged with possession of an offensive weapon, sexual assault on a female, common assault and criminal damage.

PC Donnelly said: “I just felt I was doing my job and happy to have taken someone off the Underground who was a danger and put him in prison.”

BTP Chief Constable Andrew Trotter presented PC’s Donnelly and Virdee, as well as Inspector Sanderson, with their awards at a ceremony held at the British Medical Association building in Tavistock Square today.