‘Cannibal killer Matthew Williams was chewing and growling as cops burst into Cerys Yemm death scene and blasted Taser between his eyes’
PC Alan Cotterell fired his Taser at crazed Matthew Williams after bursting in to the hotel room where he was seen with his hands in the mutilated face of shopworker Cerys Yemm.
A CRAZED man was blasted between the eyes with a Taser after cops burst into his room and saw him growling and chewing near the mutilated body of a young woman, an inquest heard.
Pc Alan Cotterell was first to fire his Taser at Matthew Williams after bursting into the hotel room where he was seen with his hands in the face of shopworker Cerys Yemm, jurors were told.
Speaking about the moment he came face-to-face with Williams, Pc Cotterell said: "Saying I feared for my safety is just police jargon. I was absolutely bricking it. If he'd got up God knows what he could've done.
"We were told he had a screwdriver. We didn't know where that was so as far as I was concerned until it was secured he could've potentially used it as a weapon.
"We'd been told he was eating someone. Obviously we now know that's not the case. But he was chewing on something and I didn't want him to take a chunk out of me."
Asked what his state was when he opened the door and faced Williams, who the inquest heard was dripping in blood, Pc Cotterell said: "I have never been more scared in my life.
"I have gone to some horrific things through my service but this was the most horrendous thing I have ever seen.
"The next thing to happen is you try and engage with him but I looked at this face and he just looked possessed.
"It was just totally vacant. It was an angry sort of look but if you looked in his eyes you could not see colour.
"They were almost all black... if he got to his feet I would not be alive today."
Gwent Coroner's Court in Newport heard how before alerting the emergency services, hotel owner Mrs Miles opened the door to Williams' room after residents heard screams coming from it.
Mrs Miles said she has since learned that the "science" has proven that Williams was not performing an act of cannibalism, but that was what it looked like to her.
Her husband Raymond Miles, who stood guard outside Williams' room while his wife was on the phone, said he heard "thumping and grunting" coming from inside.
He later told the court how he could see the dead woman lying on the floor with Williams on top and added that it looked like he had his hands in her "eyes or mouth".
Mr Miles said one male and two female police officers arrived and that Williams went "floppy" and seemed to be unconscious after being Tasered by one officer.
Jeremy Johnson QC, who was representing Gwent Police, asked: "You weren't worried that the police were using too much force?" Mr Miles said: "No."
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Mr Johnson said: "If anything, you were worried that they should be using a bit more force.
"Did you at one stage say 'hit him again'?"
Mr Miles agreed and said: "That is when he was trying to get up."
Pc Cotterell said he and Mr Miles had to force the door open as there was something obstructing it and that when the door opened Williams rolled onto his back and landed between Miss Yemm's legs.
He added that he shouted at Williams that he had a Taser and asked him to roll away from Miss Yemm.
"It was my opinion that he was trying to get up either to carry on the attack of Cerys or to come at us," he said.
"It did not strike me that he was trying to get out of the way to surrender.
"He was laying there snarling and growling."
Pc Cotterell said he used the Taser on Williams and saw that the first barb went into his gut area but did not find out until the paramedics asked him to remove it that the second barb had struck Williams between his eyes.
Of his decision to use the Taser he added: "I have got no doubt if he managed to get to his feet and he came at me I would not have been able to defend myself."
He said he believed the Taser had worked and had achieved neuromuscular incapacitation on Williams but that he then started to move so he decided to handcuff him and put leg straps on.
Pc Cotterell said: "He was just not responding. He was just snarling and growling and he appeared to be chewing on something."
The inquest heard other officers arrived and Williams started to try to rise up again about seven minutes after the Taser was first used.
Pc Cotterell said he was being lifted by Williams who was moving upwards "as if we weren't there" and he used the Taser again in angled drive stun mode three more times in the space of 27 seconds, after Williams repeatedly tried to get up.
Pc Cotterell said he then went to the floor and did not rise up again but was breathing and "I had no concerns about his condition at that stage".
Describing what he knew and found out while travelling to the scene, he said he had dealt with Williams a few times previously.
The first being in 2012 when Williams was Tasered by another officer and it had not worked.
He said he knew Williams was a ";rather large, violent male".
The inquest previously heard Williams suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and was released from HMP Parc in Bridgend on October 23 with no support or medication.
The inquest in Newport continues.
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