A police officer from West Midlands Police has been found not guilty of assault following an IOPC investigation that was launched after a partial clip of an arrest went viral on social media.
28-Year-Old PC Jack Green said that he delivered a ‘distraction’ blow – something that is taught to officers during their officer safety training – because he thought Lavinder Gadu would hit him during a non-compliant arrest.
PC Green went on trial on Friday, 28th January, but District Judge Shamim Qureshi stopped the proceedings before hearing all of the evidence to acquit PC Green.
Judge Qureshi stated that the case ‘stands or falls’ on partial mobile phone footage of the arrest, which went viral after being uploaded to social media in Feb last year.
Judge Qureshi said:
“In my view, it is quite clear to the court from the mobile phone video that the officer’s use of force was reasonable in the circumstances and proportionate to the threat as he perceived it.
“It is important to remember playing the video from that phone in slow motion is one thing but things happen within fractions of a moment.
“The court has to consider the defendant’s state of mind in the heat of the moment.”
He also noted that to Green’s ‘credit’, he did not resort to other force such as issuing PAVA spray, using his baton, or throwing a punch.
The court heard that PC Green and his colleague PC Lucy Page responded to a 999 call for help made by individuals with Gadu, who reported that he had been drinking heavily.
During the 999 call, it was also mentioned that Gadu was potentially looking to arm himself with a knife.
The complete Footage of Gadu’s arrest, which included the officers’ body-worn camera recordings, was played to the court.
When the officers arrived on the scene, Gadu was slumped on the step outside an address.
PC Green was heard asking Gadu to stand up because he was being arrested.
Gadu replied, ‘that’s not a problem’ but added, ‘don’t put your f****** hands on me’.
As PC Green tried to place Gadu in cuffs, he resisted being arrested.
During the arrest, the officer’s quick-cuffs did not function properly as the officer could not secure them.
As Gadu resisted being arrested, PC Green and Gadu ended up on the floor as Gadu continued to fight and swear at the officer.
When Gadu lifted his arms up, PC Green used his right forearm to force his head back down towards the ground.
At this point, one of the females at the address got her mobile phone out and started to film what was happening, just as PC Green used a second forearm strike to try and subdue Gadu.
Giving evidence, the officer stated it was ‘playing in my thoughts’ there had been a previous mention of a knife.
He recalled saying: “You need to stop now or this is going to go seriously wrong.”
PC Green told the court he felt Gadu push his stab vest and that he mistakenly thought his hand was clenched when it was actually holding a mobile phone.
He stated he thought Gadu was ‘creating space to punch me in the face’ and described it as ‘the point of no return’, which prompted his decision to deliver a second forearm blow to him.
PC Green said:
“Everything I wanted to achieve with that action had taken place. He was completely dissuaded from his train of thought and his focus on getting me off him. And looking down he hasn’t managed to get his hand out of the cuff.
“It felt like it was proportionate and resulted in the right result. No-one was seriously hurt and he was arrested.”
At one point in the scuffle, Gadu said, ‘I’m going to f*** you up’.
The court was told Gadu initially made admissions about his own conduct that evening, and the court heard he was never prosecuted.
He gave his own account of what happened in the confrontation with PC Green, but Judge Qureshi concluded he was a ‘person of no credibility whatsoever’, in part due to his level of intoxication and lack of recollection of the events.
The judge also ruled that it was ‘extremely important’ that PC Green explained his actions to Gadu’s partner at the scene.
Judge Qureshi brought an end to the trial before hearing from a police expert in the use of force.
He said: “His (PC Green’s) basis of defence was raised several minutes after his arrival. It adds credibility to what he said. In all the circumstances I consider the case not proved against the defendant.”
A spokesperson for the IOPC said:
‘Our investigation, which ended in July 2021, followed a mandatory referral from West Midlands Police after a complaint was made against PC Green.
‘The officer, who had been deployed to a domestic incident in Penn on 16 February 2021, was accused of using excessive force when apprehending [Gadu].
‘In our investigation, we carefully assessed mobile phone footage, body-worn video and conducted key witness interviews.
‘At the end of our investigation, we referred a file to the CPS who authorised the charge of assault by beating.
‘We will now be discussing with West Midlands Police any potential disciplinary proceedings regarding the officer.’
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It is clear from the Judges comments that PC Green was correct in his actions, and whilst the CPS are the ones who ultimately make the decision on wether to proceed to prosecute, it is based on the IOPC reports which in this case are clearly incorrect so why are they now looking to bring disciplinary actions against a Police Officer. It is clear to me that if the Judge who has viewed the evidence including Police Body worn CCTV footage has stopped the trial part way through and stated that the Police Officer is NOT GUILTY the IOPC are deliberately going above and beyond their role, it is also reasonably clear that the IOPC are only looking at the small part of the incident taken by a member of the public and then shown on social media. I strongly suspect that the original complaint is racist based but clearly cannot be certain however the IOPC need to remember racism works both ways (as do a number of other bodies). The IOPC need to stop their actions now, PC Green has NO CASE to answer for and his record must remain clean and he should be allowed to get on with his job. The IOPC investigation is complete, they allegedly reported the facts to the CPS who in turn decided to prosecute which would have almost certainly resulted in unpaid suspension for PC Green The Courts have stated NOT GUILTY in fact stopped the case part way through because it was clear that the IOPC got it wrong. Let this man get on with his job. It is no wonder that Police Officers are so disillusioned and are leaving the force when not only do they have the public making videos of them but deliberately only showing a small part of the story resulting in trial by media they also have the IOPC accepting part videos and trial by media as facts. PC GREEN HAS BEEN FOUND INNOCENT OF ALL CHARGES BY THE COURTS