Officers who went above and beyond to try and save the life of a woman – and in the process apprehended her dangerous killer – have won an Essex Police Federation Bravery Award.

Two Essex Police officers who courageously went above and beyond to try and save the life of a woman – and in the process apprehended her dangerous killer – have won an Essex Police Federation Bravery Award.

PC Ed Spink (pictured) and a colleague, who has asked not to be named, attended the horrific incident in Great Sailing in August 2019 after a call had been received by the woman’s husband.

He had rung police to claim his wife had been threatening him with a blade and that he had pushed her in retaliation. He told operators that the woman was unconscious and appeared not to be breathing.

The two officers were the first to arrive at the scene, and despite knocking on the door and raising their voices to get the attention of the occupants, they were unable to gain access to the property.

Becoming increasingly concerned for the woman’s safety, PC Spink shoulder-barged the door down.

As they went in, the officers could see a man was standing over a woman’s body. Realising they had to keep him away from her if they were to be able to save her life, one officer drew a Taser and the other managed to get the man out of the room. They began emergency CPR on the victim.

Meanwhile PC Spink set up police cordons and got the area ready for the arrival of an Air Ambulance helicopter. The pair were assisted in the incident by SC Joe Pearson and PC Ellie Chatten.

Unfortunately, the woman, Linda Vilika, lost her life in the incident. In January 2021, the man at the property – her husband Wilfred Jacob, 43 – was convicted of stabbing his wife in the back and sentenced to 18 years for murder.

PC Spink and his colleague said they had been “running on adrenaline” to deal with what was an intense and harrowing incident.

PC Spink said: “I knew from reading the first few lines of the incident that this would be bad. I didn’t know how bad, but I got a ‘Spidey sense’ that something really bad had happened.”

His colleague said: “There were a few practical things like, ‘This is what we need to do when we get there’, and ‘How can I help as much as possible once I get there? How can I try to fix this problem?’

“Unfortunately, it was too late to fix it, but we did everything we could to secure the scene and hopefully get some justice for the victim.”

Essex Police Federation Chair Laura Heggie said the officers had done everything possible to try to save the woman’s life and ensure that the evidence was maintained to secure a successful prosecution.

“Thankfully, this sort of incident is not something our officers will have to attend every day, but when they do, they need to be extremely professional and courageous to arrest the offenders and save lives if they can,” she said.

“These officers didn’t know what they would encounter when they knocked down that door – but they were switched on and went into full on ‘work’ mode, they   assessed the situation they were confronted with and did absolutely everything they could to save the woman’s life, whilst also making sure her attacker faced justice.

“We are extremely proud of their actions. Our thoughts remain with the family of Linda, who sadly lost her life that day.”

The officers will attend the Essex Police Federation Bravery Awards on 26 May where an overall winner will be announced.

The Awards are in Association with Uniform Mortgages. The hashtag for the event is #EssexFedBravery.