A man who stabbed a police officer in the chest in London has received a prison term of less than three years.
41-year-old Mohin Hussain had been approached by patrol officers in London while being observed keeping his hand in a satchel strapped across his chest, with a search being attempted due to his answers to their questions and “odd behaviour”.
As one of the officers got out of his patrol car to initiate the search, “Hussain pushed the car door against him and at this point removed his hand from the bag and punched the officer in the upper right of his chest before fleeing the scene,” recalls an official news bulletin from the Metropolitan Police.
Hussain was successfully detained after a Taser was trained on him — but not fired — during a foot chase, at which point the “punched” officer realised he had in fact been stabbed with a Stanley knife.
For this, a judge at Southwark Crown Court sentenced Hussain to a prison sentence of just two years for “Section 20 wounding”, plus six months for being in possession of a bladed article — to be served consecutively rather than concurrently, as is often the case.
It is possible Hussain will serve significantly less than two years and six months actually in prison, however, as most criminals in Britain handed non-“life” sentences are entitled to automatic early release on licence halfway or, more rarely, two-thirds of the way through their term.
“Officers often deal with incidents that most people would run from, and even though they wear protective equipment, they still risk serious injury,” commented Detective Constable Nigel Pacquette, the investigating officer for the Metropolitan Police.
“They place their own safety behind that of the communities they protect, but when their duty is over, they must be able to return home, to their own families, without having suffered injury,” he added.
The Met made offered no complaint with respect to the shortness of Hussain’s sentence in its statement.
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