Court Dismissed Assault On Police Case After Police Officer Was Told “YOU’RE LYING”

When you join the thin blue line, you are, in part, employed by the Government to not only uphold the law, but to also act as a professional witness in court.

Police Officers are, most of the time, trusted by the courts for their accounts of incidents which have taken place to give an accurate representation of what has happened.

If you can’t trust the police to tell the truth in court, then who can you trust?

After all, the police will normally only end up giving evidence in court after ‘something’ has happened, or at least that was always the assumption.

As our regular readers will know, we are passionate about reducing the incidences of emergency services personnel being assaulted.

Each member of our team has served in the emergency services and many of our family & friends still do.

We aren’t naive or nostalgic enough to believe that we can 100% stop such cowardly attacks on our oppos, but we are determined to try and reduce the frequency with which they occur.

We are talking here about men and women who risk their own lives in order to try and keep us all safe, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

We should not forget, that It was only just over a year ago when our streets were plagued by the tyranny of evil and it was the police who put their lives on the line, along with the other sections of the emergency services, in order to try and stop the attacks.

Of course, we must not forget the heroic actions of the civilians who also tried to stop the attacks or who gave aid immediately after the tragic incidents occurred.

So with this in mind, then surely our police are, or at least should be, trusted by the courts. Or so you would like to think…

This morning we heard about a serving police officer who, having allegedly been assaulted whilst on the job, was, in effect, told by the same legal system that he puts his life on the line to uphold, that he was lying.

According to a statement on the Police Federation of England & Wales’ website:

“Jason Vernon feels police officers get a raw deal from the courts, after magistrates refused to believe his account of an assault.

“The Avon & Somerset PC and a colleague spotted a suspect who was wanted over a domestic incident.

“They blocked his path with the police car and PC Vernon tried to apprehend the man, who became abusive and was resisting arrest.

“A scuffle [then] broke out and moments later three of the suspect’s friends appeared and confronted the officers.

“PC Vernon said: “I could see my colleague in a confrontation with these men but I couldn’t help him as I was still trying to restrain this suspect.”

“At that moment a relative of the man PC Vernon was grappling with, decided to intervene.

“He struck the officer with a blow to the face, catching his eye, which started to water profusely.

“Police back-up arrived and the suspect and his relative were arrested.

“However at court the defence accused the officers of making the assault up.

“PC Vernon said: “I was told ‘you’re lying’.

“I said I was not and his client had struck me when there was no need for it. The court believed them and dismissed the case – we couldn’t believe it.”

“Incidents like this have caused PC Vernon to lose some faith in the justice system. He has also been spat at, punched and bitten and said compensation awards are rarely enforced.”

How are the police supposed to do their job, with less resources in the face of more crime, when they are not believed in a court of law?

I am not saying that 100% of police officers tell the truth 100% of the time. But during my own time in the Met, not once did I go to court in order to give evidence and lie about what had happened.

And never did I see or hear my former colleagues lie in court – especially when it came to being assaulted.

We aren’t talking here about whether the police officer concerned was telling the truth in relation to, for example, what colour socks he was wearing on that day, or what he had for his lunch.

We are talking about the officer not being believed after ‘allegedly’ being assaulted.

It hard enough trying to convince people not to assault our emergency services, let along convincing the courts that, when assaults DO take place, then they did in fact happen.

If you have an emergency services related story, video (that you have filmed) or blog (whether its light-hearted or serious), then contact our team of former emergency services personnel at:

Email: emergency_services_humour@outlook.com

Twitter: @ES_humour

Or us via our Facebook page @EmergencyServicesHumour