Published: 26 September, 2013
by ALICE HUTTON

EIGHT police officers have been rewarded for their bravery in bringing a UK-wide manhunt to an end with the arrest of man accused of assaulting elderly women, knifepoint robbery and seven indecent exposures stretching from Lincolnshire to Hampstead Heath.

Inspectors Helen Cryer and Simon Brooker, Sergeants Nikki Forster, Martin Hubbard and Jay Peacock, and three PCs, were  among dozens of police to receive awards at the Camden Borough Commander’s Commendation Ceremony on Friday.

Included was PC Tony Wilson whose work helped jail a man for 12 years for head-butting and punching a six-month-old baby and his mother in a Camden hostel in April.

Gathered family and friends at the Town Hall were told how PC Wilson was first on the scene following Batchoma Bambanota’s brutal attack on the pair after the heavily drugged up 27-year-old became frustrated with the boy’s cries.

Thanks to PC Wilson’s “professionalism, initiative and dedication” he gained the trust of the vulnerable mother who gave evidence leading to Mr Bambanota’s conviction at Blackfriars Crown Court in August, as reported in the New Journal.

Lining up next to the police were six members of the public who were instrumental in bringing to justice multiple members of the credit card fraud ring from King’s Cross who scammed hundreds of thousands of pounds out of vulnerable victims over the phone.

They included Christine Machin, of Barclays Bank, and David Joyce, Peter Radovanovich, Dean Rolls, Cameron Maclachlan and Henrisk Horwood of Selfridges.

Other accomplishments which merited special recognition was the work done by seven officers to track down a professional car thief and PCs Sol Akdary and Victoria Burns for saving the life of an 83-year-old man by breaking down two doors at his flat in Boscastle Road, Dartmouth Park, in January this year after neighbours raised concerns.

Borough Commander Ben-Julian Harrington, who handed out his first commendations since taking over the top job in Camden in May, said: “It is a privilege for me to give those commendations. What you did is extraordinary. You have made London, Camden, safer so please be proud of that.”

• Pictured: The winners with, front, from left, Deputy Mayor Cllr Lazzaro Pietragnoli, Chief Superintendent Richard Tucker and Borough Commander Ben-Julian Harrington.