A TEENAGER who ran over an off-duty policeman twice as he fled from the scene of a crash has been sentenced to 30 months detention.Officer Karl Smith was “dragged down the road like a rag doll” and feared that he might die when he tried to arrest 18-year-old Thomas Abbott, a court heard.

A TEENAGER who ran over an off-duty policeman twice as he fled from the scene of a crash has been sentenced to 30 months detention.

Officer Karl Smith was “dragged down the road like a rag doll” and feared that he might die when he tried to arrest 18-year-old Thomas Abbott, a court heard.

Abbott, who had earlier attended the funeral of his aunt Kim Abbott, one of five people killed in a horrific crash on the A12 at Blythburgh in July, had smashed the car he was driving into a garden wall in Elms Lane, Wangford at about 8.30pm on August 4.

The teenager had no driving licence and was not insured and when Mr Smith, an officer with the Civil Nuclear Constabulary at Sizewell, tried to arrest him the teenager drove off.

Mr Smith was dragged across the road under the car and then as he was lying on the ground Abbott drove over his right foot before hitting a number of cars, said Robert Sadd prosecuting.

In a statement to the police after the incident Mr Smith said: “There was nothing I could do to save myself and I thought I might die. I was dragged along like a rag doll”.

Ipswich Crown Court heard that as a result of the incident Mr Smith suffered considerable skin loss and serious ligament damage to his right knee and had to have his leg put in plaster.

He also suffered abrasions to his right foot, chest, hip and thigh, said Mr Sadd.

Abbott, of Quakers Way, Leiston, admitted dangerous driving, assault causing actual bodily harm, failing to stop after an accident and driving without a licence and insurance.

He also admitted theft of a mobile phone on an earlier occasion.

Sentencing him to 30 months detention in a young offenders' institution and banning him from driving for five years, Judge John Devaux said he was satisfied that Abbott knew exactly what he was doing when he ran over the off-duty policeman's foot as he tried to make a citizens arrest.

“It was lucky for him that his injuries weren't much more serious than they turned out to be,” said the judge.

Neelam Sharma, for Abbott, said her client had not known how to drive an automatic car and had panicked. “He didn't intend to cause such injuries to the police officer,” she said.