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Bravery Awards: Officers acted on instinct to save attack victim's life

15 January 2025

Two West Midlands Police Federation members have told how they ‘acted on instinct’ to prevent a murderous attack and save a victim’s life.

PC Ben Chilcott and PC Callum Dee put themselves in harm’s way to rescue a man who was being repeatedly stabbed at an address in Wolverhampton.

Now their act of heroism has been recognised with the West Midlands Police Federation’s Bravery Award for Wolverhampton, which is supported by George Burrows.

Ben said: “There wasn’t a lot of time to think about things, we just acted on instinct.

“We looked at each other and knew we had to do something. We went into the house and did what we had to do.”

The incident happened on January 4 2024, following reports that someone was behaving aggressively and was armed with a knife and a hammer. 

The officers arrived at the property and could see straight into the front room through a large window.

 

West Midlands Police Federation Bravery Awards

 

Ben said: “As we soon as we walked up to that window the suspect grabbed the injured party to the floor and started stabbing him to the chest.

“He stabbed him quite a few times.”

The front door to the property was open and Callum and Ben ran in. They used their PAVA spray on the attacker, which caused him to drop the knife.

After a brief struggle the attacker was put in handcuffs and detained outside.

The officers then returned to the victim, who was still alive.

Work together

Callum said: “We worked together for quite a while, get on well, and have a good relationship where we know that we’ve got each other’s back.

“The award is nice to get, but the main thing is he was alright.”

Callum, who has since moved to Australia to continue his career in policing, added: “I got to meet the victim at court, and he passed his thanks on to Ben and myself.

“To hear him say ‘you saved my life’ and ‘I’m very grateful’ was reward enough.

“To know you’ve done that for someone is a really good feeling.

“He was just a normal bloke but something horrible happened to him and we managed to save his life, effectively.”

Exceptional bravery

The pair were nominated by Sergeant Alix Hadley.

The citation said: “This is for your exceptional bravery shown on 4 January 2024 at an address in Wolverhampton, when you saw a man being stabbed repeatedly within, entered without hesitation to prevent a murderous attack in progress and certainly save the victim’s life.”

The officers will receive their award at the West Midlands Police Federation Bravery Awards, which are sponsored by Slater and Gordon lawyers.

The awards will be held in Birmingham on Thursday 30 January.

READ MORE: Bravery Awards: Meet one of the Birmingham winners.