Essex police officer 'saved girl's life' by helping her escape abusive dad

DS Hayley Lambert receiving a commendation for her work across a 23-year career with Essex Police
-Credit:Essex Police


An Essex Police sergeant helped "save a girl's life" by separating her from her abusive and controlling father. For Sexual Abuse and Sexual Violence Awareness Week, Detective Sergeant Hayley Lambert has been praised for her incredible dedication to protecting vulnerable people.

For over two decades, she has dedicated her career to protecting the vulnerable, holding offenders accountable, and leading a team committed to stopping domestic abuse before it becomes fatal.

Domestic abuse is defined as an incident or a pattern of incidents of controlling, coercive, threatening, degrading and violent behaviour. This can present itself in many forms, including coercive control; psychological and emotional abuse; physical or sexual abuse; financial or economic abuse; harassment and stalking and online/ digital abuse.

ADVERTISEMENT

Read more: Woman 'beaten and strangled to death' by jealous ex-partner at Chelmsford home, court hears

Read more: Residents fear new M25 Moto service station plans will 'destroy' the environment

Joining the force at aged 19, DS Lambert has spent 23 years in a profession where every day brings new challenges and moments of "profound impact". She believes her experience and insights could easily be written down and packaged as the next binge-worthy ITV crime drama.

Before joining the police, DS Lambert worked for Tendring Council Beach Patrol – a role she fondly remembers. “Walking, swimming, riding boats and jet skis all day was my idea of good fun” she said. That experience, interacting with the public in all sorts of situations, became the unexpected foundation for a career spent saving lives in a very different way.

Encouraged by a University career counsellor’s suggestion- “the ideal careers identified were Police Officer or Funeral Director! At the age of 18, you can understand why policing felt like the greater appeal.” - and motivated by a shared application experience with her then-boyfriend, Hayley embarked on a path that would define her life.

DS Hayley Lambert
DS Lambert specialises in preventing abuse before it turns fatal -Credit:Essex Police

Now at the helm of the Chelmsford Domestic Abuse Problem Solving Team (DAPST), DS Lambert’s work is all about prevention. Her team identifies high-risk domestic abuse perpetrators – those most likely to escalate to homicide – and works to disrupt their offending. This means direct engagement, intelligence gathering, safeguarding victims and planning operations to intervene before tragedy strikes. “The wrong decision could be fatal for a vulnerable victim," she said, while admitting the reward is knowing that her work saves lives.

ADVERTISEMENT

One of the cases that has stuck with DS Lambert was that of an 18-year-old autistic woman being physically and emotionally abused by her father. Isolated and terrified, she had no support network and was too afraid to engage with police – until DS Lambert stepped in. Months of careful trust-building led to the young woman escaping to safety with financial and emotional support put in place to help her rebuild her life.

She said: “She wrote me a letter saying that I had saved her life and without me she believed her father would have killed her. She is now in a healthy relationship, travelling the world with her partner and living her best life and I couldn’t be prouder of her!”

Another moment came off duty, driving home one night when DS Lambert saw a woman about to jump from a bridge. She said: “I saw the woman on the wrong side of the railing, facing the road below. I called the incident in and stopped to talk to her until assistance arrived. She was very distressed, but I listened and kept her talking.

DS Hayley Lambert with her husband
DS Hayley Lambert with her husband -Credit:Essex Police

"Once support arrived, she turned to face me with her back to the road below and let go of the railing. I managed to grab hold of her to stop her falling and thankfully colleagues were seconds behind me and helped me get her to safety. I really believe that if I had chosen not to stop that night, she wouldn’t be here today.”

ADVERTISEMENT

To those considering a policing career, DS Lambert, who is also a wife and mum, has key advice. She said: “Be prepared to learn. Bring confidence but leave your ego at the door. Do this job because you want to make a difference—not for money or authority.”

While she’s acted as a Detective Inspector, Hayley prefers staying hands-on with her team and the public. She added: “For now, my team is achieving amazing things, and I want to keep driving that success.”