A driver accused of causing serious injury to a police officer has been granted bail.

Lewis Goldswain was charged with causing grievous bodily harm with intent after a Volkswagen Golf car struck PC John Fordham in London Road, Larkfield, on July 26.

The officer, who was in plain clothes, was left lying in the road. He was treated for a fractured vertebra and thigh in London’s Kings College Hospital.

Prosecutor Dominic Connolly told Maidstone Crown Court on Monday that Tonbridge-based PC Fordham was out of hospital but would be in a brace for three months.

Goldswain, of Vicarage Road, Halling, had been remanded in custody but Judge Jeremy Carey granted him bail conditional on residence at his mother’s address in Panters, Hextable, reporting to police twice weekly and only driving for his employer.

The 27-year-old father, who works collecting clinical waste, will return to court on Saturday, August 16 to enter pleas.