Police attack victim Pamela Somerville says she will forgive the sergeant who was jailed for a violent assault on her if he says sorry face-to-face.

Sgt Mark Andrews was jailed on Tuesday for six months following the 2008 incident at Melksham Police Station in Semington which has left Miss Somerville with virtually no vision in her left eye.

Ms Somerville, of Pinewood Way, North Colerne, who is a petit 5ft 2in, told how a burly 6ft 3in Sgt Andrews hurled her on to a concrete floor. The ordeal was caught on CCTV.

In the two years that have passed, Miss Somerville says she became so depressed she wanted to commit suicide.

Her partner John Bussell, who lives with her, came to her rescue.

The 59-year-old said: “I just didn’t want to carry on. It is only because of John that I’m here today. It was just horrific. I just wanted to take my life away. I had hit rock-bottom. I didn’t leave the house for weeks and I really let myself go.”

Ms Somerville, who has a daughter in London, spoke to a doctor in Colerne when she considered suicide.

In 2008, Ms Somerville was taken to Melksham police station after she parked her car in a layby just 150 yards from her home.

She had fallen asleep in the Mercedes the night before and woke to find the car battery dead. Without a mobile, she stopped a passing PCSO and minutes later police arrived and arrested her.

A charge of failing to carry out a breathaliser test was later dropped.

Talking about the sentence Ms Somerville, who has lived in North Colerne for four years, said: “I don’t want retribution, I just want justice and fairness.

“It is not even the sentence he has received that concerns me. I would love him to have the guts to come here to my house and sit here face-to-face and say ‘Pam, I didn’t mean it and I’m sorry’.

“I want him to look me in the eye and say those words. I actually felt for him. I felt for his wife and kids. It will not make me happy to have him in prison. I have an incredibly forgiving nature – but I need that apology.”

Mr Andrews was seen dragging Ms Somerville across the floor at Melksham police station, before hurling her into a cell. She was left unconscious in a pool of blood before he re-entered the cell with a medic.

Ms Somerville said: “As I was being dragged across the room it was going through my head that this must be a case of mistaken identity.

“He was really strong and he really hurt as he was pulling me. I was scared and very frightened because they wouldn’t tell me why I was there and I couldn’t understand why he was doing this to me.

“I have been left with a scar and the eye now droops. It looks like I have had a stroke. I have got to have an operation but the surgeon has no doubt that the problem was caused by the impact.

“I regularly get infections even two years later and I virtually can’t see anything out of the eye.”

She added: “I want to say a big heartfelt thanks to PC Rachael Webb for standing up against Andrews. It takes a lot to do that so I appreciate it.

“I am also happy that the police saw this right throught to the end and that he was prosecuted because they must be absolutely certain that the officer was in the wrong to go as far as they did. Now I just want to move on with my life.”