Teenage Hartlepool student hailed hero for tackling a man attacking a woman

Kelsey Dimmock was just 17 when she tried to stop a man from punching and hitting another teenage girl on a bus.

Despite the attacker turning on Kelsey, the courageous young woman said she would do it all again if she saw someone else in trouble.

Kelsey suffered bruising, a black eye and a clump of her hair pulled out in the incident and the other young woman was badly bruised and her teeth cut through her lip.

However, without the brave Hartlepool student’s intervention the victim’s injuries could have been much worse.

Kelsey said: “I was sitting at the back of the bus and this man was sitting opposite me.

“All of a sudden he just attacked the other young woman who was sitting nearby. It was totally random, she was just writing in a journal.

“He started hitting and punching her, so I stood up and tried to pull him off her.”

The victim managed to run to the front of the bus, but her assailant followed and started hitting the girl again and pushed her off the bus, which had come to a stop.

Kelsey, who works as a lifeguard when not at college, said: “I was just so angry, I ran down the bus after him and tried to pull him off her, but he grabbed my hair and pulled me off the bus by it.”

By the time the bus driver managed to get out of his cab, the attacker was running away.

Kelsey said there were other passengers on the bus, including men, but none of them came to the aid of the two young women.

She remained with the girl until help arrived and police managed to track down the attacker who was later jailed.

Kelsey, who is now 18, and studying a first year course in childcare at Hartlepool College of Further Education, has now been awarded a gold medal for bravery by the National Police Chiefs’ Council for her actions.

The medal was awarded at a prestigious public bravery awards event at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Bloomsbury London.

It was in recognition of Kelsey’s ‘gallantry and devotion of civic public duty’ in tackling the man during the incident in Stourbridge, West Midlands, in March 2017.

Kelsey, who lives with her boyfriend, Samuel Reid, 19, and his grandparents in Hartlepool’s Manor Road area, said she was stunned to get the award.

She said: “It was amazing. I didn’t know I had the gold award until I was there.”

Kelsey received her award from Chief Constable Sara Thornton, chairman of the National Police Chiefs’ Council.

The teenager said: “I don’t know why I did what I did, it was just instinct I suppose. But, I would definitely do it again, 100%.”