PSNI Sergent granted Queen's gallantry medal for Bravery

A police Sergeant from Banbridge has been awarded the Queens’s Gallantry Medal for bravery.

Mark Wright was called to a house in Lurgan in 2012, where a man had assaulted a woman and locked himself in a house with two young children. 

He tried to foce entry before being attacked with two knives suffering serious head wounds. 

Sergeant Wright wrestled with the man, who also tried to stab a colleague in the throat.

He apprehended the man and handcuffed him. 

The suspect was arrested, charged and subsequently sentenced to seven years in prison.

Sergeant Wright said: “I am extremely humbled and honoured to have been nominated for the Queen’s Gallantry Medal. Our job as police officers is to protect lives and to keep people safe and on that night in question I was only doing my job protecting the individuals within the house.

“I will be accepting this award on behalf of all my colleagues with in the Police Service of Northern Ireland as this was a team effort.”

South Area Co-Ordinator, Chief Superintendent Alywin Barton said: “I am hugely proud of Sergeant Wright and his colleagues.  They have been recognised for their heroism and bravery.

“Sergeant Wright put his life in real danger and doing so protected and indeed saved the lives of others.”