One of the traffic officers said to have been attacked by chase driver Morgan Culshaw said there was a point he realised it was a ‘fight he couldn’t win’.

PC Philip Duthie was on his way to Bicester to collect paperwork for the family of a fatal crash victim last August when he spotted 26-year-old Culshaw’s Renault Clio doing 100mph on the M40 north of Wheatley.

Together with crewmate PC Martin Woodford they pulled the car over and went to speak to the driver.

Culshaw was said to have started swallowing pieces of cannabis, which Mr Duthie estimated to be the size of £2 coins. The officers took him to the floor in an attempt to arrest him and prevent him from eating more drugs, jurors heard.

Prosecutors claim that the Renault driver fought the police officers in a bid to get away, raining down blows, stamping on one of the officers’ heads and spraying them with a police-issue pepper spray cannister.

Giving evidence on Monday, Mr Duthie said he’d attempted unsuccessfully to discharge his pepper spray at the defendant during the traffic stop last August.

Culshaw had looked towards Mr Woodford, who was backing away with his arms up.

READ MORE: Man accused of raining down blows on traffic cops and spraying one with his own pepper spray

“I believe I told him to go. I’ll be honest, at this point I’d kind of given up,” Mr Duthie, a police officer who has spent 10 years on the force, told the jury.

“I had the feeling this wasn’t a fight that I could win. There was no way I was going to control Mr Culshaw in any way.”

Bicester Advertiser: Morgan Culshaw outside Oxford Crown Court

Morgan Culshaw outside Oxford Crown Court

Jurors heard that Mr Duthie still had a scar on his wrist from where Culshaw had bitten him. He had had tetanus jabs and a course of antibiotics. 

Cross-examined by Culshaw’s barrister, the officer denied he or his crewmate had grabbed the defendant by the throat. He said he’d pushed the defendant towards a gully by the roadside in order to get him away from the motorway.

He claimed that following the encounter, Culshaw had expressed concern for his muddy cap - telling the officers: "Look at the f***ing state of my baseball cap."

Culshaw, of Pennywell Drive, Oxford, denies ABH, theft, making use of a firearm with intent and dangerous driving. The trial continues.

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