Offender Who Assaulted PC Is Released Early

“The sentence has to fit the crime better – it’s totally unacceptable”, the Chair of South Yorkshire Police Federation has said, after a man who assaulted an officer and left him for dead was freed after less than three months.

In 2024, PC Ryan Davis was on a plain-clothes operation in Hereford when he was savagely attacked by a father and son who punched, kicked and stamped on him, strangling him until he was nearly unconscious. He suffered a broken leg, multiple fractures, a dislocated broken ankle and face lacerations, including damage to his eye.

The father who attacked him is still in jail, but his son was released after just 82 days in a young offenders institution, leading Deputy National Federation Chair Brian Booth to criticise the Government’s early release scheme, warning that the police will become “caretakers in the community”.

South Yorkshire Police Federation Chair Steve Kent agreed: “We shouldn’t be doing early release for criminals if it isn’t justifiable. Prison has to be a deterrent. People who have committed crimes have to be dealt with appropriately.

“We’ve got to send clear messages out, in terms of what people will expect. And this sends out the wrong message – it almost makes prison feel like a holiday camp. The sentence has to fit the crime better. It’s totally unacceptable.”

Steve added: “On some of these occasions, they are hardened criminals. If they come out of prison, and carry on committing crime and they come across the police, well, it might be worth a punt, because they didn’t get long last time. It absolutely isn’t the right thing.