A father who travelled to a Stockton address to buy cocaine "panicked" and drove off with a police officer on his bonnet, a court has heard. Daniel Whitehead sped away as officers approached his car, striking a female officer positioned in front of the vehicle. She was carried on the bonnet as he kept driving but escaped without injury.
Incident in Ketton Road
Teesside Crown Court was told that Whitehead, a father-of-four, was driving his partner's Corsa to Ketton Road in Stockton on Friday, April 10. Police in an unmarked vehicle pulled into the street, with officers stepping out in full uniform, prosecutor Tabitha Buck said. The officers noticed the Corsa was "registered to a female and a male was in the driver's seat."
The court heard that Whitehead was probably distracted by the officer approaching his car window. His barrister, Sophie Johnstone, said the collision with the officer in front of his vehicle "wasn't intentional or deliberate." She added: "He must accept that when the officer was on his vehicle and he continued to drive - that was a deliberate assault."
Previous conviction and sentence
After his arrest, Whitehead was searched and found to have a pregabalin tablet in his possession. He admitted to the offences. The court was also told that Whitehead had previously served a five-year four-month prison sentence for robbing a One Stop Shop with three accomplices, during which an imitation Glock pistol was pointed at a shop worker's head and threats were made to shoot her.
Ms Johnstone told the court that on April 10, Whitehead "was panicked" when he drove off. "He was trying to escape. He was purchasing drugs, of course he shouldn't have been doing that either, when he hit that police officer." She said Whitehead "has not had an easy life," adding: "As a child, his brother and sister died in a house fire, that he survived. His father was murdered in 1998 - and he's still coming to terms with that."
Whitehead "hopes he can re-start his life afresh somehow," Ms Johnstone said. "He has a job offer at a wind turbine company. This was a terrible mistake. It was a dangerous act. He has written an apology letter."
Judge Francis Laird told Whitehead: "I make it plain that the basis of your plea is that your intention was to resist your inevitable arrest, it wasn't to hurt the officer. It may be that your focus was drawn to the officer to the side of you." The judge noted the officer sustained pain to her thigh and buttocks. Whitehead, of no fixed address, was sentenced to 15 months behind bars and handed a three-year and seven-month driving ban.
