Story of officer blinded in line of duty shames us all

Mr King was a sergeant serving with Staffordshire Police when Tearle's family asked for police assistance. Tearle, a schizophrenic with Asperger's syndrome, had barricaded himself inside his home, and his family were concerned for his welfare. After five hours attempting to reason with Tearle, Sgt King was shot in the face with a paintball gun. He lost one eye completely, and most of the vision in the other.

Given the circumstances, one might reasonably expect that the state would have provided Sgt King with all the support it could muster. But what happened next is little short of a disgrace. Sgt King was retired out of the force after 26 years' service with a pension that was insufficient to cover his living costs, so he was forced to get a job working on the roads.

Sgt King's ordeal is a reminder of the risks our brave police officers take every day as they face up to dangers the rest of us run away from. It also highlights the growing dangers posed by people with mental health problems. Nobody wants to go back to the days when people with such illnesses were routinely held in grim asylums, but the quid pro quo has to be that such people get the support in the community they need.

Most of all, though, is it is a national scandal that somebody who gave so has been treated so badly by the society he sought to protect. The Government must act now to ensure that Sgt King gets all the help he needs in his retirement.

And it should ensure that no officer will ever go through this ordeal again.