A POLICE officer who assaulted a Felixstowe tugboat captain and then refused to help him as he lay dying has been fired.

A POLICE officer who assaulted a Felixstowe tugboat captain and then refused to help him as he lay dying has been fired.

Pc Gary Jay forced his way into Captain Ronnie O'Reilly's Clacton home after he heard the 48-year-old shouting at his young son.

Then during a confrontation with the family he assaulted both Capt O'Reilly and his wife, Moira.

Capt O'Reilly collapsed to the floor and was later rushed to Colchester General Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

A post-mortem examination following the incident in June 2007 showed the popular 48-year-old granddad, who worked at Felixstowe Docks, had died from chronic heart disease.

Jay, 42, had already been convicted at trial last year of two counts of assault but was kept on as an officer.

However, he has now been given an instant dismissal following a police misconduct hearing.

Jay did not turn up to this week's hearing at police headquarters but a disciplinary panel dismissed him for the criminal convictions.

He was also sacked for the separate issue of failing to request and/or provide medical attention during Mrs O'Reilly's desperate attempts to help her husband as he lay dying on the kitchen floor.

The shamed policeman was also reprimanded for failing to treat the couple with respect and fined two lots of 10 days wages for forcing his way into the property and then lying to fellow officers about calling an ambulance.

Mother-of-three Mrs O'Reilly, who now lives in Felixstowe, said she felt relief at the decision.

She said: “He should not be a police officer and for Essex Police to agree with me means more than the criminal convictions.

“It has been two years since it happened and they have been a really hard two years, made harder by Gary Jay denying everything and telling lies in court about Ronnie.

“Then he appealed about it, so we had to give evidence a second time and now I have given evidence for a third time at the hearing.”

The family still have to face the inquest into the death, but Mrs O'Reilly said the hearing had restored some of the faith she had lost in the police.