THE policewoman who came back from the brink of death after a stab
wound punctured her heart yesterday took her first steps since the
attack, and spoke of how she had been ''just unlucky'' to have been
injured in the line of duty so many times.
The 29-year-old officer, Miss Leslie Harrison, speaking from her bed
in the intensive care unit of the Royal Liverpool Hospital, said: ''I've
been for a walk to the door and back this morning for the first time. I
felt absolutely exhausted.''
Her friend, Mr Barry Pitt, 38, a former policeman, held her hand and
her parents, Colin and Lillian Harrison, sat at her side.
The wall behind her bed was a mass of get-well cards and messages from
all over the country.
The incident, which happened as she attended a reported burglary on
December 27, was the fourth time she had been injured in five years with
Merseyside Police.
Asked why she continued in the job, she replied: ''I don't know
really. I keep asking myself that question.
''It's because I love the job, I do enjoy the job. It is very
fulfilling and there are only a minority of bad people out there. The
majority are nice people.''
She said she had been ''very, very unlucky'' to have been injured so
many times during her work.
''The majority of people go through their service without any injury
whatever. I've been very unlucky considering all the people who were
there that night and I was the one that got injured. It could have been
any one of us: I was just unfortunate that it was me.''
Of future similar incidents, she joked: ''Perhaps I'll let the boys go
in first instead of going in first myself.'' But then added: ''You can't
really do that. You are expected to work as men do.
''You just go in and do the job you are called to do. You can't really
stop and assess the situation -- you've just got to go in and do your
job, whatever you are called to do.''
She went on: ''I still feel very weak . . . it is my chest really that
is painful and I am still very short of breath.''
She said she had not yet made a final decision on her future and
whether she would return to active service.
A 28-year-old man is due to make his second apprearance before
Liverpool city magistrates today charged with the policewoman's
attempted murder.
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