A Bradford police officer shot in the leg when he confronted an armed robber met Home Secretary Jack Straw yesterday to receive an award.

PC Neil Dalby, 39, was given the Queen's Commendation for Bravery at a special reception at the House of Commons.

PC Dalby was lucky to escape with his life when he was blasted in the leg with a sawn-off shotgun by a robber making his escape after holding up a Bradford social club in January 1996.

He suffered an horrific wound just above his right knee in the point-blank shooting. The bullet narrowly missed a major artery.

Film director Michael Winner, chairman of the Police Memorial Trust, was so horrified he offered a £1,000 reward for the capture and conviction of the person responsible.

Gunman Nicholas Rowe, 22, of Leeds, was jailed for 19 years in January 1997 after a jury convicted of wounding PC Dalby with intent to resist arrest, possessing a firearm with intent to commit robbery and robbery.

Three other men - Imtiaz Gull, 32, of Parkinson Street, Bradford, Damien Brown, 21, of Leeds, and Andrew Nuttall, 35, of Bowling Old Lane, Bradford - were jailed for 16 years on charges of robbery and possessing a firearm with intent to commit robbery.

PC Dalby has since returned to work, but yesterday made the trip to London along with 11 other PCs receiving Queen's Awards of Gallantry.

Mr Straw said: "It's a great pleasure to pay tribute to the courage and dedication of the police - too often taken for granted by us all.

"Police officers face great risks and dangers every time they go out on patrol, be it routine or in response to an emergency.

"We should be grateful to those police officers who risk their lives to protect others. The Queen's Awards and this reception are ways of showing our gratitude."

PC Dalby and his colleague PC Simon Binks chased members of the gang who took £2,000 and a video recorder from the Ballpark Leisure Club, Little Horton. They confronted Rowe in Manchester Road and ignored his threats that he would shoot.

PC Dalby said: "I'm very honoured to receive the award, but it's not just for me by for my colleague PC Binks.

"I would like to express my thanks to the whole team involved in the inquiry and feel the award reflects not only what I did, but what my colleagues in West Yorkshire do every day.

"Every police officer in the force would have done what I did in the same circumstances."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.