British cop rebuked for arresting grandmother over ‘lost’ ball

A policeman has been given a reprimand after arresting Angela Hickling 56, after a neighbour claimed she failed to return a football. He was obviously drunk with his powers and should be dismissed for that

A policeman who arrested a grandmother for failing to return a football that a neighbour claimed had landed in her garden has been given a reprimand.

Angela Hickling, 56, was taken to a police station, questioned, fingerprinted and made to provide a DNA sample as part of a theft investigation after Christopher Salisbury complained that she had stolen the ball by refusing to return it. Mrs Hickling watched in disbelief as officers searched her garden and the surrounding land and checked inside her home. She thought that her ordeal was over when the officers failed to find anything — but instead she was taken away and questioned for an hour and a half. Two days later police officers contacted her again to tell her that the investigation had been discontinued because of a lack of evidence.

Mrs Hickling, of Heanor, Derbyshire, later made a formal complaint about her treatment during the incident in August last year. Yesterday she said that Derbyshire Constabulary’s decision to issue a reprimand to the constable, whose name has not been released, was nothing more than a “slap on the wrist”. She has now contacted the Independent Police Complaints Commission. Mrs Hickling said: “The officer’s behaviour was too severe for me to let this go. I know he is not going to lose his job, but he should be made to explain his actions before the Chief Constable — and I also want an apology.”

A report on the officer by Superintendent Debbie Platt, of the Derbyshire force, said that he “had not met the standard expected under the code of conduct”. It upheld Mrs Hickling’s complaint and said that the PC should receive “formal management advice” — a punishment that Mrs Hickling says is unsatisfactory. She said: “The whole episode was a farce. I was flabbergasted. It was unbelievable that police would waste their time over such a trivial matter. “Why mess about over a football when there are burglars breaking into people’s homes, people selling drugs and pensioners being mugged?”

Police officers arrived late at night at the house where Mrs Hickling lives with her husband, John, and two of their children, Sheryl, 21, and Haydn, 14. When Mr Hickling, 60, answered the door the officer told him: “I’ve come to arrest your wife.”

The constable told them that Mr Salisbury believed his son’s football had been stolen after landing in the Hicklings’ garden, and began his search. After her arrest on suspicion of theft, Mrs Hickling was driven to the force’s headquarters in nearby Ripley to be questioned and fingerprinted. She said: “They took a mug-shot, fingerprints, DNA — it was terrible. I had to control my feelings, as I knew it was just an abuse of his power.”

Derbyshire police refused to comment yesterday, but a spokesman said that at the time of the incident the force had a duty to investigate all criminal complaints. Mr Salisbury, who bought the bungalow next to the Hicklings’ home in 2005, has since emigrated to Australia.

Report here


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