A speeder who bit and stamped on two traffic cops after a routine motorway stop then attacked them with their own pepper spray has been jailed for six years.

Morgan Culshaw launched the attack on PCs Martin Woodford and Philip Duthie after they caught him doing 100mph on the M40 north of Oxford last August.  

Jurors at Oxford Crown Court took less than five hours to return unanimous guilty verdicts on charges of causing actual bodily harm, dangerous driving, theft of the pepper spray and making use of a firearm with intent.

Sending the 26-year-old to prison for six years, Recorder John Hardy QC described Culshaw’s decision to pick up PC Woodford’s police-issue pepper spray before using it on the officers as a ‘act of gratuitous defiance’.

The judge said: “On this day you had a choice. Either not to resist arrest and surrender the cannabis you had or to struggle and put up a fight and you put up one hell of a fight.

“As a result of that, police officers going about their ordinary daily business received significant injuries.”

He added: “You set about a course of dangerous driving on the M40 which included weaving from lane to lane, striking a police car and then when the police enabled you to stop sensibly and give up, rather than do so you reversed into their car, damaging it and then drove off like a maniac down the hard shoulder.”

During the four-day trial, the court heard that PCs Philip Duthie and Martin Woodford were on the M40 north of Wheatley on August 20 last year. The traffic unit was dealing with a fatal crash and the officers, who between them have more than two decades’ experience on the force, were on their way to Bicester to collect paperwork for the victim’s family.

Oxford Mail:

Morgan Culshaw outside Oxford Crown Court

They clocked a Renault Clio in front of them driving at 100mph and pulled it over, planning to speak to the driver about his speed. The driver, Morgan Culshaw, said he didn’t have his licence with him but walked with Mr Duthie towards the marked police BMW, where Mr Woodford was clearing space on the back seat.

Mr Duthie spotted Culshaw putting ‘£2 coin sized’ pieces of cannabis into his mouth and went to restrain him, followed by his crewmate.

According to the officers, the driver managed to get himself into a press-up position then pushed the PCs off his back. Mr Duthie, worried about how close they were to the motorway, shoved Culshaw away from the road and they tumbled into a drainage ditch by the hard shoulder.

During the ensuing fight, the two officers claimed to have been punched repeatedly, Mr Duthie was bitten and his crewmate’s head was stamped on. Culshaw managed to get into the police car through the open rear passenger door, exited through the driver’s door, picked up a can of police-issue pepper spray from the floor and sprayed it at the officers.

Giving evidence to the jury, Mr Woodford said there came a time when he was on the ground as Culshaw towered above him. He told the driver: “No more.”

The officer, who also said he feared he would die in the attack, said: “He was stood upright, looked back at me, smiled and stamped on my head.”

His colleague, Mr Duthie, said: “I had the feeling this wasn’t a fight that I could win. There was no way I was going to control Mr Culshaw in any way.”

Culshaw was said to have complained about the state of his baseball cap, which had fallen to the ground, and also asked where his flip flop had gone. He got in the Clio, which belonged to a female friend, and sped off.

Another traffic officer managed to catch up with him further down the motorway. He rammed the Clio, which was said to have been weaving between lanes, in an effort to get it to stop.

The defendant then drove the wrong-way down the hard shoulder, crashed into a ditch and fled on foot, the jury was told. Inside his bag, found near the crash site, was £270 in cash and a cannabis grinder.

Opening the case for the prosecution earlier this week, Archie Mackay told jurors: “This case is about a desperate attempt to get away from the police. It was unsuccessful, but it was very violent and very dangerous.”

Culshaw claimed he was acting in self-defence. The cannabis smoker, who used the drug to manage the pain from pre-existing injuries, had panicked when he was stopped by the police and went to swallow the drugs.

Oxford Mail:

Morgan Culshaw's custody image Picture: TVP

He said all of the altercation had happened in bramble and water-filled gully by the roadside. Culshaw claimed to have spat out the cannabis in full view of one of the officers. He punched Mr Duthie as the officer had grabbed his testicles, he said. He denied stamping on Mr Woodford's head or driving the wrong-way down the motorway.

“I had no intention to get physical. It felt like a dream,” Culshaw told the jury.

He denied key aspects of the prosecution’s case, in particular that he had been pushed into the gully by PC Duthie in order to get him away from traffic on the motorway, that he had clamped his teeth around the officer’s arm or deliberately stamped on PC Woodford’s head. He had been sprayed in the face with pepper spray by one of the officers.

He disputed claims by another police officer, who had caught up with the Clio on the northbound carriageway, that his Renault was weaving between lanes.

Andrew Bousfield, mitigating on behalf of his client after the jury’s unanimous verdicts, told Recorder Hardy: “The defendant would like to apologise for everything that happened that day. He would like to stress he’s not a violent person. He wishes to get on with his life. He’s had this hanging over him for some time and he is genuinely sorry.”

When the judge questioned his level of remorse, Culshaw said through his barrister that he was sorry and had reacted as he did because of the pain when the officer grabbed his testicles.

In victim personal statements summarised to the court, the officers explained the impact the attack had had on them and their families. Mr Woodford, a police officer for 12 years, said when he went to sleep he could see Culshaw above him about to stamp on his head.

Oxford Mail:

The crashed Renault Clio at the roadside. The car belonged to Culshaw's friend Picture: CPS

Recorder Hardy praised the officers who dealt with the incident, adding it was worthwhile remembering that police officers were also ‘ordinary human beings with families and careers’.

He described the defendant, who was convicted of affray as a youth, as an ‘articulate and respectable man’.

Culshaw, of Pennywell Drive, Oxford, was convicted of ABH, theft, making use of a firearm with intent and dangerous driving.

He was banned from driving for five years and must pass an extended retest. Culshaw, who spent a year under curfew, will serve half of his six year sentence behind bars before he is eligible for release.

The judge described the 18 months' imprisonment he imposed for the dangerous driving as 'woefully inadequate for the extreme danger that you caused on that day'. Earlier in the hearing he said he and other judges regarded the two year maximum sentence for dangerous driving as 'woefully inadequate'. 

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