HAMPSHIRE police has been forced to apologise after a nurse was interrogated for carrying out a welfare check on a friend with mental health issues.

Katherine Henning, 55, has blasted officers for being “heavy-handed” after was pulled over and questioned for 40 minutes.

The veteran nurse from Andover who worked for the NHS for three decades was coming to the aid of a friend who was experiencing a mental health crisis.

The 55-year-old continued: “She has a problem being stuck inside so I said, ‘let’s go around the local area, let’s change the environment and give you 20 minutes out.’ So we drove around the country lanes where she grew and up she reminisced. And it helped.”

But after taking a wrong turn she was pulled over by police, who asked if the pair were lost.

“Suddenly from nowhere came a black BMW,” she added. “Five seconds later I was pulled over. I was challenged by the police officer – my friend was terrified by the whole situation. He challenged me and his opening gambit was, ‘are you lost?’”

A 40-minute wait then ensued in which Katherine had to prove her nursing credentials, prove she was allowed to drive the vehicle she was in and explain why she was out helping her friend in the first place. “After that ordeal, my friend was absolutely terrified,” she added. “I took her home. Eight hours it took me to calm her down.”

Katherine later followed up with police regarding the incident, who have since apologised and confirmed her trip was “absolutely reasonable” and that the officer should not have questioned her so thoroughly.

Hampshire Constabulary has since apologised.

It comes after police launched a website via which residents can report a possible breach of coronavirus.

But Katherine, who worked at Andover hospital from 2000 until 2018, says this does not mean we should be spying on our neighbours and that instead we should – and are legally allowed to – help people where we can.

Katherine did just that when she travelled to her friends’ address, near Winchester, on April 11 to carry out a welfare check. She says she was concerned for her friend’s life.

She was also told that she did the right thing in travelling to her friend’s address, and that the police would have been unable to do anything themselves.

“He said my trip was absolutely reasonable,” Katherine added, “that it was perfectly okay to help my friend, because [the police] can’t. And that it was inappropriate for that officer to behave in that way, and basically persecute me.”

Now her biggest concern is that people will be discouraged from helping others or, in some cases, themselves for fear of being stopped by police – a fear that she believes has been exacerbated by the media.

She said: “There was an incident with a young lad who was so terrified to call an ambulance, and because he was so scared it got to a stage where hospital staff had to call an ambulance for that lad.”

She also worries that her friend is one of many whose situations are not accounted for in the government’s social distancing guidelines, adding: “There are people out there who are really struggling, having a really hard time, particularly with mental health issues, and none of that has been taken into consideration.”

First and foremost, Katherine wants people to know, from her own experience, that police should not be subjecting the community to such rigorous questioning, and that the community should in turn not be looking to ‘dob’ on others.

“It’s not okay to be spying on your neighbours and your friends, and it’s okay to try and help people,” she said. “It’s about being compassionate and kind and loving your neighbour – not spying on them.”