'I warned authorities about him, but nothing happened. Then he went on a rampage'

AUTHORITIES were repeatedly warned about the views and behaviour of a man who later tried to murder a police officer.

- Conor Gogarty

On the evening of January 31, while clad in body armour, Alexander Dighton approached Talbot Green police station in Rhondda Cynon Taf with a knife, hatchet and wooden pole.

The 28-year-old threw a Molotov cocktail at a police van, which did not ignite, but he then managed to set another police van alight using petrol.

He smashed the van's windows with the pole before attacking a group of officers who had arrived on the scene.

He swung the pole which was adapted with metal on the end - at one officer, punched another to the head, and stabbed a third to the leg before finally being restrained.

Two of the officers needed hospital treatment. Dighton later pleaded guilty to 10 charges among them the attempted murder of DC Jack Cotton. He is due to be sentenced next month.

A family member of Dighton has now told us they referred him to the Prevent counter-terrorism scheme more than a year before the attack - but Counter Terrorism Policing Wales found he did not meet the criteria to be included in the programme.

The same relative said they contacted South Wales Police on January 14 this year with concerns about his behaviour.

We understand they also tried to get him support from Rhondda Cynon Taf council's social services around two and a half years ago, and a neighbour of Dighton reportedly made similar unsuccessful efforts with the council in the weeks before the attack.

The family member drew comparisons to the cases of Jake Davison, who shot five people dead in Plymouth, and Axel Rudakubana, who stabbed three children to death in Southport.

"If all these individuals had Prevent referrals in place, why are the police not intervening when it's the people closest to them making these referrals?" they said. "This isn't to say police didn’t do their job, but it’s a systematic failure.