A SERIAL criminal stole a police officer’s Taser and used it against him.

Darryl Dempsey, 24, and accomplice Wayne Dobson then attacked the officer, seriously injuring him. The pair fled in a stolen tractor before stealing two further cars in an attempt to evade police.

It happened in Capel Cynon, Ceredigion, Wales. Dempsey, of Brading Close in Eastbourne, was found nine days later in Sussex.

He was found to be unfit to stand trial and in his absence the jury found him guilty of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, using a firearm to prevent arrest, two counts of aggravated vehicle taking, damaging property and driving while disqualified. Sentencing has been suspended until a hospital bed is found.

He was jailed for 44 months in 2016 after a string of burglaries then fleeing from police across the South Downs.

In January 2018 The Argus reported he had escaped from jail six months earlier and tried to outrun police by driving the wrong way down a busy motorway.

He was jailed for two years after pleading guilty to dangerous driving, escaping from lawful custody, driving whilst disqualified and criminal damage.

He again escaped jail and was put on the wanted list with a £1,000 reward that led to his arrest in August 2018.