Oxford's top police officer Brendan O'Dowda has described how he saved the life of a three-year-old child who had been run over by a car.

Superintendent O'Dowda has been given a Chief Constable's commendation - and little Mekeda Beckford, who spent months in a coma and suffered multiple broken bones, was on hand to help present it.

Mr O'Dowda had only just taken up the post of Oxford area commander and was doing an additional job at firearms command when he and his team came upon the scene of the accident in High Wycombe last July.

While his driver cleared the scene and stopped children pouring out of a nearby school getting close to the accident, Mr O'Dowda started work trying to save the youngster.

He said: "She had run out of her mother's arms in front of a car and gone right underneath the car and we had to get her out, which was pretty grim.

"She had stopped breathing and was lifeless and was hideously injured, with most of her bones broken and four fractures of the skull.

"I just grabbed her poor little body up, got her on to the grass verge and for about 25 minutes, I resuscitated her until the ambulance came."

Mekeda, who is from High Wycombe, was airlifted to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford and spent months in a coma - with Mr O'Dowda visiting her every day.

Mr O'Dowda, who received his award from Mekeda, now four, and her mum Gemma, in an emotional ceremony at Drayton Park, near Abingdon, on Thursday, said: "A lot of the time on this job you go out and do your job and it is all for nothing because unfortunately the person dies.

"And it is very rare for senior officers like myself to be involved in something like this.

"But she pulled through and was a little angel, she was brilliant."

He added: "It makes me feel unbelievably proud. In the 24 to 25 years I have been in this work, it is by far the best thing I have ever done, in fact probably the best thing I have done in my life.

"I am incredibly proud and unbelievably happy for Gemma and Mekeda."

Father-of-four-Mr O'Dowda, who is 42 and lives in Kidlington, said the accident had "knocked him for six" and admitted he had broken all the rules by continuing to visit Mekeda while she recovered.

Mekeda has not yet fully recovered, but can run and talk again.

Mr O'Dowda received the award for his humanity, compassion and perseverance, and for the support he provided to her family.