A POLICE officer suffered a life-threatening condition believed to have been triggered by an assault on her when she arrested a man on suspicion of having counterfeit currency.

PC Kate Potter and colleague PC Sofia Dewberry had been called to the Tan y Clawdd petrol station at Johnstown near Wrexham last August.

They arrested Patrick Gerard McDonagh but he grabbed firelighters from a display and struck PC Potter's face and as the struggle continued he punched her head.

Prosecutor Karl Scholz told Mold Crown Court she suffered bruising and swelling to her left cheek and a lump to the left temple. She also had soreness to her left jaw bone.

Although she returned to work on September 9 she had a headache and felt run down and tired, but put it down to a slight cold.

She had painful ear aches and intense pain in her head and ears which ultimately led her being taken to hospital as an emergency at 3am on September 17.

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Snax petrol station in Johnstown. Picture: Google Streetview

While in accident and emergency her condition deteriorated and her conscious level dropped.

She was incubated and ventilated and tests confirmed she had bacterial meningitis.

The officer was in intensive care until September 24 when she was discharged.

The prosecutor said although CT and MRI scans did not identify any obvious skull based fracture or dural tear, such scans could not entirely exclude a tiny tear following head trauma which probably resulted in bacteria entering the cranial cavity leading to meningitis.

Mr Scholz said there was a strong temporal relationship between the assault, the development of the ear infection and the subsequent meningitis.

The treating doctor Dr Sam Sandow said the assault was probably the causitive factor and consultant forensic pathologist Dr Brian Rogers said it was "highly likely to be".

In an update last month the officer told how she continued to take pain killers for weeks and underwent physiotherapy after her discharge from hospital.

It took some four weeks for her hearing to return to normal and a further three weeks for "popping" in her ears to stop.

In her statement she spoke of the emotional impact of the assault, that at the age of 37 she contracted a life-threatening illness, of the effect upon her family, how the assault had left her feeling vulnerable, and how she was still questioning whether she was doing the right thing

returning to work as a constable.

Judge Nicolas Parry said the offence occurred before the new legislation covering assaults on emergency workers came into effect.

He was left with a maximum sentence of six months for an assault on a police officer which with maximum credit for a guilty plea would reduce the sentence to one of four months.

But in total father-of-two McDonagh, 23, who has an address in Wembley, London, was jailed for a total of two years after he admitted two assaults on police, driving under the influence of cocaine and three separate occasions when he possessed or tendered counterfeit notes in Wrexham and Chester.

The judge told McDonagh that had assaulted the two officers and was only stopped when an unknown man commendably went to their aid and restrained him in a headlock.

He said the effect on one officer had been far-reaching.

"The likelihood is that she suffered a life-threatening condition stemming from the blows to the head," he said.

He was released and six days later quite brazenly returned to the same garage and tried to use counterfeit notes again.

When the notes were retained he threatened to damage the property and only left after being persuaded by a girl of 15 who was with him.

He was arrested and found to be in possession of counterfeit notes.

Rebailed, he tried to do the same thing again in a shop in Frodsham Street in Chester.

But he was arrested by police after a staff member realised what he was doing, followed him and called CCTV operators with a description.

Such offences were said to undermine the economy of the country but Judge Parry said the reality was that they affected small family businesses and could put local jobs at risk.

McDonagh was disqualified from driving for two years.

The court heard how he had a number of previous convictions including three robberies.

Barrister Charlotte Johnson, defending, said McDonagh was expelled from school at the age of nine because of behavioural issues and had since that age worked in the scrap metal business with his father.

There had been a change in his attitude and he was now studying to be a mechanic.

McDonagh was remorseful and apologetic, she said.