Pc Tim Bradshaw is on trial at Portsmouth Crown Court accused of causing serious injury by dangerous driving in Hawthorn Road, Bognor on November 3, 2022.
The court has heard that the 55-year-old response officer touched the back wheel of the e-bike with his marked Ford Focus police car, causing rider Mason McGarry and pillion passenger Dominic Mizzi to lose control and fall to the ground.
Mr McGarry, who was 17 at the time, suffered a broken tibia and required surgery after the incident, and told the court that Bradshaw had not given any warning before the incident.
Trial of Tim Bradshaw begins after Bognor Regis incident
Mr Mizzi, 22, described the officer as being “unhinged”.
In a police interview read to the court, the defendant said he and his colleagues had been dealing with numerous incidents of anti-social behaviour involving electric motorbikes in the area in previous months, including one fatal accident.
Bradshaw described attempting to follow the e-bike earlier that evening after the riders had driven past his car on the pavement in an attempt to “goad” officers.
He said the same e-bike later pulled in front of him which is when he took the decision to make “tactical contact” while driving at about 30mph but had not informed his controllers that he intended to take this action.
Bradshaw said: “I didn’t have the time before I made the decision to do this, we are looking at five seconds or so since I pulled away until I made contact.
“There was no time to make that request and I made that decision myself based on the risks they posed to themselves and other members of the public due to their antics on those bikes.
“I just approached them from behind, the front bumper on my car would have made contact with the back wheel of the bike but it wasn’t a ramming, it was really a light touch, enough just to make them lose control and fall off, and there wasn’t to my knowledge a mark on the car.
“It wasn’t a forceful contact, it was a light contact.”
He said he did not put his sirens on to request them to stop and added: “There wasn’t time to do so and I know they wouldn’t take any notice anyway, that’s their pattern of behaviour.”
Denying that he acted out of anger, he said: “It wasn’t anything about red mist, it was a controlled, thought-about act on my behalf.”
Bradshaw said his superiors had previously approved tactical contact on two occasions but this permission had not been given that evening.
He said that afterwards, Mr McGarry had “run off like a gazelle” and Mr Mizzi had been “laughing and joking”, although he was complaining that injuries from a previous accident were hurting.
Bradshaw said he did not have tactical contact training but when asked under what power he had acted, he replied: “I didn’t think about it at the time, it’s common law to protect life.”
Bradshaw, of Bersted, denies the charge and the trial continues.
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