A police officer has told an inquest that he fired a Taser at a man doused with petrol and holding a lit match to try to stop the target harming himself.

Andrew Pimlott, 32, who had a history of depression, was engulfed in flames and suffered fatal burns during the incident in the back garden of his parents’ house.

PC Peter Hodgkinson insisted he fired the device – the first time he had discharged it – in an attempt to stop Pimlott hurting himself.

The inquest has heard that he fired within 41 seconds of arriving at the scene, but the officer denied he had aimed the device at Pimlott almost as soon as he saw the lit match and maintained he had shouted a warning.

Hodgkinson conceded he was “on his guard” as he headed into the garden and this feeling was heightened when the police control room told him Pimlott had previously assaulted an officer.

The inquest jury had heard that Pimlott turned up in his parents’ garden in Plymouth, Devon, on the evening of 18 April 2013 in defiance of a court order banning him from their property. His father, Kelvin, dialled 999 when he saw Pimlott with a petrol can, fearing he was going to set fire to the house.

Hodgkinson fired the Taser at Pimlott, who died five days later. A pathologist told the inquest it has not been possible to say if it was the Taser or the match Pimlott held that caused him to catch fire.

However forensic scientist Stephen Andrews, an experienced fire investigator, told the jury he believed it likely that the Taser ignited Pimlott, rather than a match.

He carried out a series of experiments to try to establish how Pimlott may have caught fire. Andrews said: “Overall my opinion is that my findings provide very strong evidence to support the view that Andrew Pimlott was set on fire by the Taser.”

Describing the scene as he came face to face with Pimlott, Hodgkinson said: “He empties the contents of the jerry can as soon as I stepped around the corner. I believe I was shouting at him to put it down and was trying to engage.



“I remember the raised voices, shouting, but don’t remember the exact words said by either myself or Mr Pimlott but he was very upset, angry. I looked round and got my Taser. As I looked up I saw a flame. I believe it was in his right hand. I tried to engage and shouted: ‘Put it down, Taser trained or Taser officer.’

“I don’t remember the exact words said but something to that effect. My thought at that time was that his intention was to set himself alight. Shortly after that he became engulfed in flames.”

The officer added: “I thought he was about to use the flame that was in his hand to set himself alight and if I didn’t take any action that he was going to harm himself and I needed to use the Taser to stop him harming himself.”

Matthew Barnes, a barrister representing the Pimlott family, suggested to the constable he had fired the Taser “almost instantaneously” when he saw the lit match. Hodgkinson insisted that was not the case.

Barnes asked Hodgkinson if he had considered a different approach by talking to Pimlott as he may have got a different outcome. Hodgkinson replied: “My belief at the time was that he was going to harm himself, that’s why I drew my Taser. I am not going to get into the what ifs of every other possible scenario. I believe I did all I could.”

Hodgkinson told the inquest at Plymouth coroner’s court that he had completed his three-day Taser training course in 2012 – the year before Pimlott’s death – but the fatal incident was the first time he had deployed the weapon.

PC David Beer, who was with Hodgkinson, told an inquest that his immediate reaction to seeing Pimlott covered in petrol and holding a lit match was: “Fucking hell he’s going to go up.”

Beer said Hodgkinson had no option but to shoot Pimlott with the 50,000-volt Taser because of the risk he was posing to himself and others. “I was aware PC Hodgkinson had taken his Taser out and [was] shouting at the male,” he said. “I can’t recall what he was shouting but he may have said: ‘Put it down.’ I concentrated back on the male, I heard the Taser sound being activated and Mr Pimlott went up in flames.

“I froze for a minute and Mr Pimlott screams and starts coming towards us and I think to myself, ‘I’ve got to do something’.”

Beer said he shouted at Pimlott to get on the floor and wrapped a duvet around him to put out the flames. “Neighbours were providing water and we started pouring it over him and a hose was also supplied.”

The inquest continues.