A police officer whose wife won a legal battle to take him off life support after he was brain-damaged by a head-on car crash has died aged 43.
Paul Briggs was “living for no reason” after suffering a bleed on the brain, five spinal fractures and bruising to internal organs.
His wife, Lindsey Briggs, said she was devastated but also relieved the Gulf war veteran’s suffering had finally ended.
“I am so sorry to say Paul died this morning as a result of his RTC [road traffic collision],” said Lindsey, mother to their five-year-old daughter, Ella. We’re devastated and trying to come to terms with all he’s been put through.”
Briggs, a Merseyside police officer and Northern Ireland veteran, was riding his motorcycle on the Birkenhead flyover on his way to a nightshift on 3 July 2015 when Chelsea Rowe struck him.
Rowe, from Bidston, Wirral, who was driving the wrong way, was jailed for a year aged 26 in July last year after admitting causing serious injury by dangerous driving.
Lindsey told the court of protection in November last year that Briggs, who was treated at the Walton centre in Liverpool, did not respond or recognise her, and that she saw in his eyes “nothing there, or at worst, distress or suffering”.
Mr Justice Charles ruled last month it was not in Briggs’s best interests for treatment to continue, and recommended he be moved to a hospice for palliative care in his final weeks.
A family statement after his death on Saturday morning said: “Paul was a much-loved husband, father, son, brother, friend, and colleague. He was such a kind person and he lived life to the full. We will miss him more than words can express and the pain is immense, but we know he has no pain or suffering any more and he is at peace.”
Merseyside’s chief constable, Andy Cooke, added: “Paul was a young man and his death is a tragedy, but I know that Lindsey, his daughter Ella, and his family, will find some comfort in knowing that Paul is now at peace and his wishes have been honoured.”
