A WILTSHIRE constable who tackled a blood spattered man to the ground missed out on a top police bravery award.

PC Jamie Collings was the Wiltshire nomination at the Police Federation’s national police bravery awards.

But the 24-year-old missed out on the top prize, which went to Warwickshire Police’s PC Andrew Dear, who helped save the life of a crash victim pinned beneath his car.

PC Collings, who attended the award with chief constable Kier Pritchard and Insp Mark Andrews of the Wiltshire Police Federation, was put forward for the gong for the heroism he showed in Melksham last year.

The Devizes officer was called to reports a man had smashed the window of a house and made off with his child. After PC Collings managed to persuade the man to hand the child over to a friend, the blood-soaked man began scrapping with the officer.

“He had a really bad hand injury from where he’d smashed through the window. He threw some of the blood from that injury in my face," the constable said.

“For me, it meant six months of blood tests. It caused a lot of stress. Although I was pretty sure he didn’t have anything, it was the fear of the unknown,” he said.