Whilst issues surrounding the proper regulation of immigration to the UK are understandably the top of the political agenda we must never let such concerns derogate the rule of law; due process, accountability and the restraint of police power being, after all, one of the beacons that draws other people to this country, and why we are proud to live in it.
In this week’s blog post I will recount the story of my client Cedric, an American citizen, who suffered assault and wrongful arrest at the hands of Dorset Police, after being accused of “immigration offences”.
Cedric is a US citizen of African American decent and was a vulnerable individual, with a history of mental ill health, in particular anxiety.
Between 2017- 2019, Cedric was living in the UK, with his English partner and their daughter. He played basketball for a semi- pro team but was not allowed to work.
Then, in 2019, Cedric’s relationship with his partner came to an end. Thereafter, Cedric agreed with the Home Office’s Voluntary Returns Service that he would voluntarily return to the US, as although he had entered the UK lawfully, he had now overstayed his visa. It will be remembered, however, that as 2020 began the Covid Pandemic was beginning to grip the world, and massively restrict domestic, let alone international, travel.
In October 2020, Cedric’s sister assisted him in booking a flight to return to the US via Canada, due to depart from London Gatwick on 11 November 2020. At this time, Cedric was living in Bournemouth, Dorset.
On 31 October 2020, Cedric was arrested whilst smoking a joint of cannabis by officers of Dorset Police, including PC Castle, and taken to Bournemouth Police Station. Whilst he was in police custody, Cedric explained that he was due to leave the UK on 11 November. He was thereafter given a conditional caution for the drugs offence and released.
However, following Cedric’s release from custody, PC Castle attended his home address on a further three occasions, and Cedric began to see the Officer’s actions as amounting to harassment.
Unfortunately, Cedric’s 11 November flight was then cancelled due to restrictions relating to Covid 19, temporarily preventing transit into Canada.
Accordingly, on 11 November 2020, Cedric emailed the Voluntary Returns Service notifying them about the cancelation of his flight, and that he was waiting to find out what the next available flight out would be.
Later that same day, PC Castle and a PCSO once again attended at my client’s home address.
PC Castle asked Cedric if he was not flying out that day – Cedric explained that his flight had been cancelled and offered to show the Officer his emails in proof of this (from his phone).
As the conversation about Cedric’s departure from the UK continued, PC Castle stated that he needed to speak “Right now” to the member of staff at the Voluntary Returns Service with whom Cedric was dealing (Charlie).
Cedric was becoming increasingly anxious about PC Castle’s conduct and protested that he had done “Nothing wrong” – the situation with the cancelled flight of course being entirely out of his control, and perfectly understandable in the context of the ongoing global pandemic.
Cedric continued to cooperate with PC Castle – by showing him his emails, including the contact telephone number for Charlie – but at the same time was becoming increasingly anxious and distressed and his distress was only heightened when PC Castle announced “In a moment I’m going to have to arrest you”.
PC Castle then stepped into the building, grabbed hold of my client and told him that he was under arrest “on suspicion of immigration offences”.
PC Castle then pushed Cedric backwards and began to take him down to the ground. A struggle ensued as Cedric tried to get away from the Officer, but PC Castle tripped my client with a ‘leg sweep’ and pinned him face- down on the floor. In the course of his fall, my client banged his head on the floor, and would later be diagnosed with post- concussion syndrome.
Underneath the Officer’s body weight, Cedric was struggling to breathe and told PC Castle this, but the Officer’s reply was simply to inform my client that he was further under arrest “on suspicion of assault police”.
PC Castle then began to handcuff Cedric, causing Cedric considerable pain by pulling on his arm at which Cedric protested that the Officer was breaking his arm.
Aggressively shouting at my client to “stop resisting”, PC Castle then punched Cedric several times to his head and body, causing him further injury.
Cedric asked for an ambulance, repeating that he was struggling to breathe to which PC Castle commented “Your lungs are open”.
With his hands now handcuffed, and still on the ground, Cedric was in considerable pain, and briefly lost consciousness.
Other Officers arrived at the address, and Cedric was brought to his feet in handcuffs, in a state of real physical and mental distress. Indeed, owing to Cedric’s injuries the Officers’ first port of call with him was not a Police Station, but rather the Royal Bournemouth Hospital.
When Cedric was eventually taken to Bournemouth Custody Suite, the circumstances of his arrest were recorded in the custody record as follows –
“DP [detained person] was at an address being checked by police for lawful purposes. The arresting Officer had knowledge that the DP was due to leave the UK due to overstaying and should have left the country during the early hours. While the Officer was establishing the full circumstances, it is alleged that the DP became violent and assaulted the arresting Officer…”.
Cedric was in pain all over his body, especially from his wrists which were ‘raw’ where the handcuffs had been, and was feeling very anxious and dizzy. He felt further humiliated and degraded by being required to remove his clothing and submit to a ‘strip search’ examination, before being taken to a cell.
Whilst my client was detained in the cell, PC Castle wrote a statement of events in which he wrongly alleged that, on being told he was under arrest for immigration offences, Cedric had pushed PC Castle in the chest, with both hands, in an attempt to escape. He went on to paint a false picture of Cedric as a violent aggressor, and the initiator of the violence, rather than its recipient.
When Cedric was brought out of his cell for interview he gave his own side of the story, explaining that PC Castle had “Beat [him] up for nothing”.
Thereafter, Cedric was charged with Assaulting an Emergency Worker (PC Castle), contrary to Section 1 of the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018; using threatening or abusive words or disorderly behaviour, contrary to Section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986 and assaulting PC Castle with intent to resist or prevent the lawful apprehension of himself for an offence, contrary to Section 38 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861. He was thereafter released on police bail.
The following day, Cedric attended Poole Hospital, for treatment for the injuries he had sustained in this incident and had to return to hospital again 4 days later.
In January 2021, Cedric appeared at Poole Magistrates Court where he pleaded ‘not guilty’ to all of the charges that had been made against him.
The trial was originally listed for July 2021, with a time estimate of 2-3 days, but it did not go ahead – another cancellation almost certainly attributable to the ongoing effects of the Covid pandemic.
In December 2021, with Cedric still awaiting the re-listing of his trial, PC Castle completed a further witness statement in which he expanded significantly upon his original account, including making a number of references to his being aware of and relying upon the law as laid down in “Section 24 of the Immigration Act”, purporting that his knowledge and understanding of that Act had governed his interactions with my client on 11 November, and arguing the legality of his arrest of Cedric by reference to that legislation – despite the fact that he had made no mention of it whatsoever in the witness statement he had written on the actual day of the incident. PC Castle’s contemporaneous statement had referred only to his arresting Cedric for “immigration offences” – a suspiciously vague phrase, almost tantamount to telling someone that they are being arrested “for crime.”
Whether this was an act of supreme recollection, or retrospective fabrication, on the Officer’s part I will leave it to you to decide. What is crucial, however, is the very fact that this statement was written reflects the recognition by the Police that the law of our land requires Officers to specifically identify the power of arrest that they are using, and the grounds for it, and to have an honest belief that offence has been committed – because otherwise society is on the slide to the kind of authoritarianism in which Police fit the law to their actions, rather than their actions to the law.
Cedric’s trial eventually took place at Winchester Crown Court in March/April 2022 over the course of 3 days, during which PC Castle and other Officers gave evidence against my client – but he was nevertheless acquitted by the jury of all of the charges against him.
Cedric ultimately returned to the US in July 2022 – the duration of my client’s stay in the UK having been effectively extended for the best part of two years as a result of the Criminal Justice process put in motion by PC Castle’s wrongful arrest of him.
None of this had been necessary from an immigration point of view – my client had been cooperating with the Voluntary Removals Service and if it wasn’t for the intervention of first Covid and then PC Castle, would have returned to the US long before July 2022.
What a perverse scenario Cedric had found himself in, and had to suffer through during those years – he was a victim of police violence, but was accused of being the aggressor; he was told he was an immigration ‘overstayer’, but was then detained against his will in the UK, in order to answer charges which the police had trumped up against him.
After Cedric consulted me, I assisted him in bringing Court proceedings against the Chief Constable of Dorset Police, seeking damages for wrongful arrest, assault and battery and malicious prosecution.
Through my evidence gathering, detailed analysis of that evidence, and legal arguments, I was able to build a case for Cedric which ultimately resulted in the police throwing in the towel before having another round with my client in the courtroom – despite the fact that in the civil Courts it is far easier for the police to justify an arrest and prosecution than securing a conviction in the criminal Courts because the two cases are judged by very different standards and criteria. This is why I will always explain to my clients that an acquittal in the Magistrates Court or the Crown Court of offences which they say the police have falsely brought against them, is very much only a first step to winning civil damages – not a foregone conclusion.
I am very pleased to confirm that I have recently settled Cedric’s claim for damages from Dorset Police in the sum of £20,000, plus legal costs. The level of damages reflects the significant Police wrongdoing in this case. My client’s injuries and loss of liberty were made all the worse by the dishonesty which had corrupted the whole process against him from start to finish.
As I said at the start of this post – I think we can all agree that the UK needs a proper, fair and robustly policed immigration system; however, that cannot excuse misconduct on the part of Police Officers who commit those acts of misrepresentation and bullying authoritarianism which are – or should be – foreign to the principles of UK democracy and Peelian “policing by consent”.
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