Police officer tells of driver who tried to kill him in machete attack
A POLICE officer told of how he fought to stay alive while he was being attacked by a man wielding a two-foot rusty machete.
PC Stuart Outten, 29, was seriously injured while trying to arrest Muhammad Rodwan, 56, during a routine traffic stop in Leyton, east London, in August.
PC Outten told the Old Bailey that Rodwan appeared very angry at being pulled over and tried to flee.
Rodwan tried to close his van door but was blocked by the officer’s leg, jurors heard. PC Outten said: “The defendant punched me twice to the face.” The policeman said he grabbed Rodwan by his belt and his dreadlocks which came away. He added he grabbed the suspect’s neck to incapacitate him because there was no space to use his baton.
He went on: “I then started feeling something sharp being snapped against my head.”
PC Outten said he suffered at least four to five hard blows to the head and felt wetness before seeing the two-foot machete.
He added: “He tried to kill me with it. I fired the Taser. He was running towards me swinging the machete. While I fired the first shot I started falling backwards.
“He was still closing on me swinging the machete. I was focusing on aiming the Taser at the body and firing. I was almost on my back.”
The policeman suffered six head wounds, skull fractures, arm injuries and broken fingers.
Rodwan, from Luton, says he acted in self defence and has denied attempted murder, wounding with intent and possession of a machete.
The trial continues.