A WREXHAM police officer is to speak about the impact of an incident in which he was seriously attacked in a forthcoming TV programme.

With in-car, custody and body cameras, Y Llinell Las (The Blue Line) series has been following North Wales Police Roads Policing Unit in their incredible day-to-day work.

The North Wales Police region covers an exceptionally wide area - nearly a third of Wales’s land, and the problems that arise are very diverse from area to area.

And this episode focuses on attacks against the police, something that, unfortunately, happens more often than ever to police officers.

There were more than 30,000 assaults on police officers in England and Wales in 2019/20.

More than 10,000 of those were harmful attacks.

In this episode of Y Llinell Las, viewers get a shocking look at these escalating attacks and the hatred amongst some towards the police.

One victim of a serious attack is PC Rich Priamo from Wrexham.

He said he is very proud of his work and community and comes from a very close family.

His father was born in Italy, and his grandfather was captured as a prisoner of war and sent to Ruthin, where the rest of the family came to live after the war.

In August 2019, PC Priamo was called to a house in Wrexham and when he opened the door, he was hit in his jaw, nose and eyes before being picked up and thrown to the floor.

He was knocked unconscious and remembers nothing after that.

The programme shows footage from the nearby police officers trying to help PC Priamo, who is lying on the floor, with First Aid.

He was in hospital for three weeks and unable to walk or write.

The offender was sentenced to 22 months imprisonment but was released after six months.

PC Priamo said: "He walked out before I came back to work full time.

"My recovery has taken a lot longer than his prison sentence.”

Recovering was a difficult process for PC Priamo.

He received help for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, which changed his life.

"I don't let anything stop me," he said.

"I'm still here, still trying to be as strong as I can be - I'm winning.

"That taught me that life can change in an instant...The only message I'm sending is live for now."

Not returning to work was not an option for PC Priamo, who, like all the police officers in the series, has a phenomenal attitude to his work.

Sgt Meurig Jones said: “We rarely get anyone thanking us.

"We are called every name, we’re kicked, we are spat on. It's not a nice thing, nobody goes to work to get that.”

The Covid-19 pandemic has made the job even more dangerous, as many of the police officers now work as individuals and not in groups or pairs.

Each police officer has a radio with a button that can be pressed if he or she is in trouble and urgently needs help.

PC Alun Jones said: “The minute you push that, all hell breaks loose. Everyone drops everything and go straight to you because they know, something’s gone wrong.”

Y Llinell Las will be broadcast on March 9 at 9pm. It will be available on demand via S4C Clic, iPlayer and other platforms.