A POLICE officer accused of misconduct broke down in tears as he described his horror at a fatal crash.

PC Richard Harris was driving a patrol car which hit pensioner David Ormesher in Edward Street, Brighton.

The 79-year-old died at the scene an hour later.

PC Harris told a disciplinary hearing he thinks about the crash “every minute of every day”.

He denies the gross misconduct claim over the incident in August 2017 and said he was responding to a 999 emergency.

“I remember it being a really busy night,” he said. “I knew the officers had gone into the sea to retrieve a woman and as far as I knew there was three people in the sea at that time.

“That was my honestly held belief at that time.”

PC Harris faces a claim he was driving “excessively fast” at speeds of up to 70mph in his marked police car in a built-up area of the city before striking Mr Ormesher.

His vehicles was travelling at between 53mph and 55mph when he struck the pensioner in Edward Street.

James Berry, bringing the allegations against PC Harris on behalf of Sussex Police, told the hearing a message had come through on the police car’s radio to say a woman had been pulled out of the sea.

But PC Harris did not remember if he heard that message or if he still believed a woman was in the sea.

Mr Berry asked him: “If you had heard that message, that message would not have prompted you to slow down at that time?”

PC Harris said: “Not at that stage, no. I would still say it’s an emergency response.”

The officer described the moment he saw Mr Ormesher coming from the central reservation and then being puzzled as the pensioner appeared to stop.

He said: “Obviously I have been thinking about this every minute of every day since three years ago.

“I went left, I just see this figure which could only be him it’s just getting bigger.

“I am just thinking, ‘s*** I just need to get out of the way’.”

Crying, PC Harris said he had braked and added: “I think there’s a bang.”

Earlier in the hearing, PC Samantha Cooper, who was in the patrol car, defended her colleague.

She said the officer has been treated “appallingly” through the criminal and disciplinary investigations into his conduct.

PC Cooper said: “PC Harris did everything he possibly could, his driving was faultless, in my opinion.”

Earlier James Berry, bringing the allegations, said: “It is our case that PC Harris’s speed and the manner of his driving were neither safe nor necessary, reasonable and proportionate.

“For that reason PC Harris breached standards of policing behaviour to the level of gross misconduct.

“From the moment that PC Harris turned on to Eastern Road, he was driving too fast, with insufficient planning for the actions of other road users.

“His excessively fast and unsafe driving resulted in him colliding at speed with Mr Ormesher.”

The hearing, in Lewes, continues.