Teen mother lied over PC attack

A teenager has admitted trying to pervert the course of justice in the days after her boyfriend tried to shoot dead a Wolverhampton community policeman.

Melissa McKenzie, aged 19, exchanged numerous mobile phone calls with Marcus Bailey in the hours after he blasted Pc Geoff King twice with a handgun near Waitrose in Penn. Prosecutors had claimed she was the "eyes and ears" for Bailey as he hid in an industrial bin within the police cordon, not far from the scene of the attack and her house.

At Wolverhampton Crown Court, McKenzie admitted providing false information to police over the whereabouts of Bailey.

McKenzie, who has a young son, admitted the offence not on the basis that she had tried to help Bailey, but that she was trying to protect herself from police action.

Recorder Mr Stuart Rafferty said: "If you had been convicted for helping your boyfriend after he had shot that policeman, you would have been measuring the sentence in years."

McKenzie will be sentenced for two offences of attempting to pervert the course of justice in January.

She earlier pleaded guilty to the second offence, which involved supplying false details about herself to police officers.

Mr Rafferty ordered her to speak to Probation Service officers to help them draw up a pre-sentence report.

He added: "You've come close. It's in your interests now to co-operate fully."

Birmingham Road-based Pc King, 33, confronted Bailey, who he thought was acting suspiciously, outside McKenzie's flat at Bromford Rise, Oaklands Road, Penn Fields, on a Saturday night in November last year. Bailey, 25, fled and Pc King gave chase across the Penn Road, where the gunman stopped, aimed his revolver at the officer's head, and fired three times.

Ex-Marine Pc King was hit twice and his life was saved by colleagues.

He has now returned to work, but is not a front-line officer.

Mr Rafferty told the court yesterday that Bailey's sentence of life imprisonment, with a minimum term of 15 years, was "not a day too short".

"I repeat the court's good wishes to Pc King for a full and speedy recovery."