A drug-driver who ran over a police officer as he attempted to pull him over for speeding has been jailed.

In a hit-and-run, Barry Rossiter accelerated towards PC Adam Staughton as he stood in the road in Ashford, knocking him onto the bonnet of the Vauxhall Vectra and then the windscreen, causing it to smash on impact.

The seriously injured officer fell onto the ground but as he lay there in severe pain from fractures to his hip and pelvis, the callous 24-year-old sped off.

Canterbury Crown Court heard that as Rossiter made his escape, he drove dangerously on the wrong side of the road, mounted a pavement and even collided with an Age UK vehicle carrying four elderly passengers.

Undeterred, he continued to flee, with his speed estimated at reaching 90mph, before eventually abandoning the vehicle, which was later discovered torched and completely destroyed.

However, Rossiter, of Nickley Wood, Ashford, was identified and arrested five days later.

Not only had he been using drugs in the lead-up to the incident but he did not hold a full driving licence, the car was not registered to him and he had no insurance.

Described as "violent and unpredictable", he was originally charged with attempted murder, denying he had even been in the car at the time of the incident on January 26 this year.

But Rossiter later admitted his guilt by pleading to the less serious offence of causing grievous bodily harm with intent, which was accepted by the Crown Prosecution Service.

Just five years earlier he had been locked up for four-and-a-half years for stabbing a man three times at a party in Ashford.

As well as suffering physical injuries, PC Staughton, a police officer for 20 years, has since been diagnosed with PTSD and depression.

He was unable to attend Rossiter's sentencing hearing today as he is still undergoing rehabilitation at a police residential centre.

But in a statement read to the court in which he also detailed the psychological impact of the hit-and-run, the officer said: "All these changes and daily pain have been caused by the actions of someone else but it is me who has to live with the constant reminder every single day."

His colleague with him that day also wrote a victim impact statement in which she said she would "never forget seeing him being thrown into the air and then running towards him not knowing if he was dead or alive".

The court heard the constable was in full uniform and wearing a hi-vis jacket in Coulter Road, Ashford, when he was struck at around 3.15pm while carrying out road checks due to concerns raised just the previous day about speeding drivers in the area.

The Vectra had been clocked at 43mph by PC Staughton's hand-held speed reader in what was a 30mph residential street.

Prosecutor Alexa Le Moine said the experienced officer recalled the vehicle "braking with force, tyres screeching and slowing considerably" just a second after the speed had been recorded.

However, as he stepped into the road he suddenly heard it accelerating towards him.

"He shouted at it to stop and described thinking whether to go left or right but realised he would be hit anyway by the vehicle and so decided to jump up in the hope he would not go under the vehicle," said Miss Le Moine.

"He described fearing for his life and regrettably and suddenly the vehicle did strike him. He went onto the bonnet before hitting the windscreen, which broke on impact, and then falling to the ground.

"At the time he was struck he estimated the vehicle to be travelling between 25 and 30mph, albeit in a short window in a high-pressure situation."

Rossiter immediately sped off, despite his visibility being significantly impaired by the damage to his windscreen.

"It was described by witnesses as leaving at excessive speed, at times on the wrong side of the road, mounting the pavement and failing to stop after colliding with an Age UK van some four minutes later which contained four elderly passengers," continued the prosecutor.

The Vectra drove towards a rural area where it was spotted travelling between 60 and 90mph by a postman who, 10 minutes later while parked up in a layby on a break, saw two men walking away towards woodland.

Ten minutes later a vehicle fire was reported to the emergency services and the burnt-out Vectra was found in Hornash Lane, Shadoxhurst.

Having been arrested on January 31 and given a 'No comment' interview, the court heard Rossiter attacked a detective escorting him by car from a Medway Magistrates' Court hearing two days later.

Ms Le Moine said the defendant appeared "frustrated at his ongoing detention" and began to ask questions about the investigation.

But when told by the two officers with him that they could not discuss the case, he erupted in temper.

"The response from Mr Rossiter was to tell officers that while he had been cooperative so far, he was likely to kick off, become abusive and aggressive, and would require both of them to restrain him and a need to get firearms officers to control him," she told the court.

It was as efforts were made to restrain Rossiter in the back seat that he made "multiple attempts" to bite the officer sitting next to him.

When interviewed, he said he was "frustrated" at being handcuffed, claimed the detective had been aggressive towards him, and that although he went to bite his fingers he "didn't mean it".

However, he later pleaded guilty to assaulting an emergency worker.

The court heard Rossiter was just 17 when he knifed a man at a party in the shoulder, lower back and elbow. He was subsequently convicted in February 2019 of wounding with intent and assault occasioning actual bodily harm, resulting in 54 months' detention.

John FitzGerald, defending at Friday's sentencing hearing, said Rossiter had shown genuine remorse and insight into his "deliberate but impulsive" actions towards PC Staughton.

Describing the mitigation put forward on his client's behalf as "relatively limited", he told the court his behaviour that day may have been impacted by his decision not to take his ADHD medication.

"This is obviously an extremely serious offence resulting in serious injury to a man supporting the public and doing the community a service, and none of my submissions are going to seek to undermine the seriousness of it," said Mr FitzGerald.

"It was obviously a very impulsive decision. This was not prolonged, deliberately targeted or premeditated. This was a snap, albeit very serious, criminal decision.

"That impulsion of driving towards the officer is likely to have been fed by his condition as he had not been complying with his medication.

"But it is not his fault he suffers from ADHD."

The court was also told that Rossiter had, despite his lack of literacy skills, composed a letter for the victim, only to leave it behind in his prison cell "in haste" at being taken to the hearing.

But Mr FitzGerald said the note demonstrated the defendant had been "reflecting on and thinking about" the harm he had caused and was "extremely sorry" for it.

However, on concluding Rossiter was a dangerous offender, Judge Simon James dismissed his account given to a probation officer in preparation for the hearing as "self-serving, inconsistent, and manifestly false".

"For reasons best known to yourself, albeit in circumstances which demand the inference that you had some criminality you wished to avoid coming to the attention of the police, instead of stopping your vehicle when lawfully requested to do so by PC Staughton, you chose to deliberately speed up and run over a serving and uniformed police officer," the judge told Rossiter.

"That officer was a stranger to you and was acting in the course of his duty. He quite understandably thought that he was going to die and it is more because of luck than any judgement on your part that he survived being deliberately run over."

Remarking on the "particularly grave" injuries suffered by the constable as well as his ongoing rehabilitation and "potentially permanent" psychological harm, Judge James said Rossiter had deliberately used the car as a dangerous weapon.

Furthermore, he added, the seriousness of the offending was compounded by the manner of his driving as he fled the scene and while under the influence of drugs, as well as setting fire to the vehicle in an effort to destroy evidence.

Judge James also said his attempts to bite another officer provided "additional evidence of apparent hostility to police and tendency to unpredictable and violent behaviour".

Ruling that the high risk of harm posed by Rossiter to the public compelled him to impose a 12-year extended sentence for public protection, he added: "Your attempts to minimise your culpability demonstrate not only a lack of any genuine remorse but are very concerning when assessing, as I am obliged to do, the risk you pose of causing serious harm by reason of the commission of further offences.

"The fact that you have committed two offences of causing serious injury with intent to cause grievous bodily harm within a relatively short period - and the abject failure to take full responsibility for the grave injuries caused to the victim of this case - force me to the conclusion that despite your relative youth you are an individual who poses a significant and indeed substantial risk of causing serious harm to others by reason of the likelihood of you committing further serious offences."

The sentence imposed comprises a jail term of 10 years, of which Rossiter has to serve at least two-thirds before he can apply for parole. Once released, any time which is then spent on licence will be extended by two years.

Several of Rossiter's family members attended the hearing and could be heard reacting with gasps and tears when he was jailed.

However, as he turned to look at them in the public gallery, he waved and said: "I'll ring you in a bit. Love yous (sic)."

In his victim impact statement, PC Staughton described how his "life had stopped" since the hit-and-run.

He said he had gone to work "with the hope of making the community safer", only to be left "embarrassed" by his sense of helplessness and "feeling stupid" that he was hit by a car while carrying out a task he had performed many times before.

The statement said: "Police officers stop cars day in, day out. They don't get hit. Why did I? I was hit because I was doing my job. Because I was trying to make the community a better place and because that person didn't want to stop for me.”

The court heard the officer's injuries took away his independence and forced him to have to move in with his mother for the first time in 20 years.

A keen runner, he also had to give up his place in this year's London Marathon, lost "enjoyment" in his work, and faced a "very slow" recovery.

Eight months on he had only been able to return to reduced duties and on restricted hours, and said he felt like "a different person".

"I have lost my sense of routine and purpose. I can't work to my full potential and have no idea when I can get back to it, if I ever will," added PC Staughton.

A second man who had been a passenger in the Vectra was also arrested in connection with the incident and charged with assisting an offender and perverting the course of justice.

But at a hearing in July the CPS offered no evidence against 20-year-old Benjamin Wilson, of Plurenden Road, High Halden, and formal not guilty verdicts were entered into the court record.

Ashford District Commander Chief Inspector Sarah Rivett said: “Every day, police officers go out to protect the community and respond to local concerns, such as the speeding that had been reported in this area.

“I am always impressed by the bravery and professionalism officers show when faced with people like Rossiter, who think nothing of causing serious harm to those who are doing their job and trying to keep people safe.

“I would like to thank the investigative team and also praise the officer who was the victim of this callous offence.

“I, along with everyone in Kent Police, am very happy he is recovering and working towards a full return when possible.”