A Police officer accused of knocking a man?s teeth out during an attempted arrest told a court yesterday that his alleged victim tried to drive a car away after being ordered out of the vehicle.

P.c. Glynn Kellman, 38, who denies assault causing grievous bodily harm to Eversley Zuill, said he told Mr. Zuill that he was endangering the life of a child when he began reversing his blue Honda jeep in the grounds of a church on North Shore Road.

?I saw the young child sitting in the front seat,? he told Magistrates? Court.

?Mr. Zuill was looking at me and not paying attention to where the vehicle was going. I shouted at him to stop the vehicle.?

The officer, of Slippery Hill, St. George?s, said he and a colleague, P.c. Andrew Exell, had followed the jeep to the church after interviewing a woman who claimed she had been attacked by Mr. Zuill at Shelly Bay MarketPlace.

Kellman said the woman was ?crying, trembling and appeared extremely frightened?. He said she told them she had been assaulted by her ex-boyfriend, Mr. Zuill, and that she was concerned for the safety of herself and her child.

?She said that she feared that Mr. Zuill would harm her child in some way because of the state of mind he was presently in,? he said, adding that she told the officers she was taking the child to a day care facility to ?remove him to safety?.

Kellman, who worked as a Police officer in Barbados before coming to Bermuda in 2004, said he and P.c. Exell then got a call to say that Mr. Zuill had assaulted the woman at the day care facility and forcibly taken the child. As the Policemen drove to the facility, they spotted a vehicle matching the description of the jeep that the child had been placed in and tailed it to the church.

Kellman said he got out of his Police vehicle and approached the driver?s side of the jeep, telling Mr. Zuill he was under arrest for assaulting the woman. He said he told him to switch off the ignition and get out of the vehicle. When Mr. Zuill didn?t, Kellman said he reached inside and turned off the engine. ?Mr. Zuill grabbed my hand. I instructed him to release me and stop resisting. There was a tussle.? He said when the vehicle began reversing he ran to the driver?s side and placed both his hands on Mr. Zuill?s arm.

The prosecution alleges that Kellman, after restraining Mr. Zuill on the ground with the help of his colleague, punched him twice, causing him to lose two teeth. A dental report was read to the court yesterday which said Mr. Zuill?s teeth had suffered ?blunt force trauma? and that four teeth had to be extracted.

?After removal of one tooth it was evident that the facial bone holding that tooth had been fractured,? the report said, adding that Mr. Zuill now had six teeth missing.

Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner ruled yesterday that P.c. Exell did not have to be called as a prosecution witness. He told the court: ?In light of the current law I do not think I have the power to call the witness.?

He had earlier accused the Crown of ?hiding witnesses? who might be detrimental to its case. Kellman?s lawyer Allan Doughty said P.c. Exell would be called for the defence.

The trial continues today.