A POLICE officer has blasted the “shameful” behaviour of a group of 20 people who forced him to stop giving first aid to a girl who had been hit by a car when they started attacking the driver.

PC Joe Tompkinson was first on the scene of the collision in Inglesham Road, Penhill at 7.40pm last night, where he found the injured 12-year-old lying motionless on the ground.

He did not know whether he was dealing with a life or death situation and the ambulance had yet to arrive, so his first aider instincts kicked in.

But it was while he was seeing to the youngster, the group began attacking the male driver and PC Tompkinson had no choice but to leave her and protect the man.

And despite the driver being behind the officer’s back, the crowd persisted and tried to push past him. He was then forced to fend them off by using his Taser.

It is understood the young girl remained in hospital until this morning, before being taken home to recover from bad bruising and tissue damage.

Speaking to the Adver, PC Tompkinson said: "I was first on the scene and when that happens essentially you are also a first aider and it’s all about saving someone's life and I was dealing with a girl lying motionless on the floor.

“In a short space of time people were trying to attack the driver. There were far in excess of 20 people, but not all were offering violence.

"At that point it was an absolute desperate situation and I didn't know the extent of the girl's injuries. I was torn between offering her any first aid and assisting the driver who was being attacked.

“As a result I had to break away from the child and deal with the situation. I took hold of the driver and was covering him behind me. My paramount instinct was to get him safe and out of the area.

"During the altercation I had to take my Taser out, and point it in the air, an electrical noise was made but nothing was fired; this was done to stop two individuals from attacking the driver or me.

"They persisted quite well and were trying to push past me to get to him but we managed to get a healthy bit of distance between us.

"If the individuals had not tried to get to the driver then I could have carried on giving first aid to the young girl who needed it, but instead I had to stop helping her to protect the driver.

"Luckily the girl was not seriously hurt."

Soon afterwards more police officers arrived to take the driver, who was unhurt, away to safety and to help calm down the situation.

No-one was arrested and the investigation into the road traffic collision is still on-going.