Shortly after midnight in August 2015 my client Debi Brown (a middle aged businesswoman of good character) and her partner Richard were queuing for entry to a bar.
After a short period of waiting, Debi and Richard decided to wait no longer, and began to walk away from the queue.
As Richard left he made a throwaway remark to Debi to the effect of ‘It was not worth waiting for anyway’.
Unfortunately, the remark of Richard was overheard by a relative of the owner of the bar.
Richard’s remark sparked a verbal disagreement between him and the owner’s relative.
Two police officers, PS Gold and PC Crippin of Northampton Police were at this time standing opposite the bar carrying out observational duties.
As the verbal disagreement involving Richard continued, PS Gold and PC Crippin approached Debi and Richard.
Whilst Debi and Richard had drunk a moderate amount of alcohol that evening, neither was intoxicated.
As Richard continued to argue with the relative, Debi, PS Gold and PC Crippin attempted to persuade Richard to leave.
Richard and Debi initially walked away. PS Gold and PC Crippin then engaged with Richard again.
Suddenly PS Gold pushed Richard to the chest, using a double palm strike manoeuvre.
As a result, Richard became annoyed at the inappropriate use of force deployed against him, and moved forwards.
Both PS Gold and PC Crippin removed their PAVA spray and attempted to spray the contents into Richard’s face. PC Crippin successfully sprayed the PAVA.
Throughout these events, Debi was attempting to usher Richard away and was encouraging him to leave the scene.
PS Gold then turned and without warning pushed Debi with significant force to the chest area, propelling her backwards and causing her to fall to the ground, landing on her outstretched hands.
Such was the force with which PS Gold pushed Debi and the momentum generated thereby that Debi sustained a broken wrist.
As Debi was sprawled on the pavement PS Gold and PC Crippin continued their attempts to arrest Richard, adopting further use of force, including striking Richard with batons.
Eventually, Richard was forced to the ground, with the officers attempting to apply handcuffs.
As Richard was being restrained on the ground Debi was so alarmed at the overly aggressive nature of the force being deployed that she approached PS Gold and harmlessly pushed off his hat, which fell to the ground.
Soon after, Debi was arrested by PC Crippin on suspicion of assaulting a police officer.
Debi, who was showing obvious signs of pain to her wrist, was nevertheless handcuffed to the rear and thereafter transported into custody at Northampton. The handcuffs were applied despite the fact that Debi informed the officers that she had an injury to her wrist and that she suspected that her wrist was broken. Debi asked on a number of occasions for the handcuffs to be taken off her injured wrist but the police refused to do so.
The act of handcuffing Debi (involving pulling her arms behind her back) caused the buttons of her blouse to become undone, exposing her bra; Debi’s underwear then remained visible until her handcuffs were subsequently removed at the Custody desk.
Whilst in the rear of the police car, Debi tried leaning forward with her shoulder against the back of the front passenger seat in order to relieve the pain on her wrist but was forced back into an upright position by the accompanying officer. Debi sought to explain that she had been positioning herself to relieve the intense pain in her wrist but was ignored. The Police car then travelled at high speed to the Police station.
Debi brought a claim for assault/battery. The police denied liability and as a result the case proceeded to trial where the court found that although PS Gold’s push was reasonable in the circumstances, it was clear that Debi had sustained a serious injury to her wrist and to handcuff her to the rear was unnecessary and disproportionate. In the circumstances, the court awarded an appropriate level of compensation.
