FIVE Thames Valley Police officers have been awarded for their bravery after finding a man covered in blood who had just killed his own mother. 

Daniel O'Hara Wright, 24, was given a hospital order in December after being found not guilty by reason of insanity of murdering his mother, Carole, on a walk in Watlington Woods, near Christmas Common. 

Lawyers for the Uxbridge man accepted he had killed his mother on October 23 but did so during a psychotic episode. During the horrific assault he beat her with a stick, stamped on her and removed her eyes.

READ MORE: Timeline of events in Watlington woods 'murder' case

Police were alerted to the incident when a woman called the police after O'Hara Wright got into her car covered in blood. There was a struggle where he tried to grab her handbag but he ran away.

Officers who were searching for him started scanning the woods in Watlington Hill Estate where they found Carole Wright's body. 

Sergeant James Cartwright said he thought that the man from the car might have killed this person, so the team continued to search the woods. They then found an open gate at a property in Hollandridge Lane.

READ MORE ABOUT THE CASE:

Sergeant Cartwright said: “I had a police officer’s intuition that something wasn’t right. So we checked the garden, then knocked on the door. An elderly couple came to the door and mentioned seeing some blood in the kitchen. We immediately put a containment on the house and PC Pulkowska and I went upstairs. In the last room we came to I could see a light underneath the door and we could see blood pooling there.”

It turned out the offender had broken into the elderly couple’s home to hide.

After they discovered him, the officers drew a Taser and challenged him. When the man came out he was holding a knife in one hand and had extensive injuries to his neck, arm and leg, some of which he had inflicted on himself. He had also suffered a significant electrical burn that later led to the amputation of his right arm.

Sergeant Cartwright continued: “I’ve been doing this job for 14 years and it was the worst thing I’ve seen in my life. I initially arrested him on suspicion of burglary, but when I asked him if he’d hurt anyone else there was an eerie silence. Then eventually he told me he’d killed his mother.”

Given the discovery of the body in the woods, the man was arrested on suspicion of murder.
Sergeant Cartwright and his colleagues: sergeant Andrew Baylis, sergeant Matthew Richardson, PC Patrycja Pulkowska and PC Alasdair Uren will now be awarded a Thames Valley Police Bravery Award.

Thames Valley Police Federation Chair Craig O’Leary said: “This was a horrific case, which all the officers involved in dealt with professionally, despite it being highly disturbing and upsetting.

“This man had shown he had no hesitation in committing murder so our colleagues were at grave risk - but they still ran towards the danger and tracked down and apprehended the offender.

“Without these officers’ diligence, the man may not have been apprehended for some time, and the residents of the house he was in may well have come to serious harm.

“We are very proud of Andrew, James, Matthew, Patrycja and Alasdair.”

Sergeants Baylis, Cartwright, Richardson and PCs Pulkowska and Uren will attend the 2022 Thames Valley Police Federation Bravery Awards on 28 April where an overall winner will be announced

The Awards are in Association with Uniform Mortgages. The hashtag for the event is #TVPFedBravery.

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