Lifted like a rag doll and hurled into cell: Shocking video of British police brutality... on 5ft 2in tall woman, 59, guilty of no offence

All because she wanted to know why she was being arrested and they wouldn't tell her. And the cop is facing a maximum of only 6 months in jail!

Captured on film, a burly police sergeant flings an innocent 5ft 2in woman on to a concrete floor, knocking her unconscious.

By the time the then 57-year-old market researcher Pamela Somerville comes round several minutes later, blood is streaming from a wound above her left eye.

Disorientated and bewildered, she manages to lift herself off the floor, but can only stagger around the room. Blood forms in small pools at her feet. Then she presses an intercom and cries: ‘I’m hurt, please, please help me.’

The incident, in the sleepy Wiltshire market town of Melksham, will inevitably stoke debate about the deteriorating relationship between the public and the police following the death of newspaper vendor Ian Tomlinson, pushed to the ground by a police officer during last year’s G20 protests.

Unlike that case, however, the officer involved – 6ft 3in, powerfully built former soldier Mark Andrews – was brought before a court. Earlier this summer, Sergeant Andrews, 37, was convicted of assaulting Ms Somerville on a July morning two years ago.

He had denied the charge, but was found guilty at Oxford Magistrates’ Court after a five-day trial. He will be sentenced on Tuesday when he faces up to six months in jail. [Is that all??]

CCTV footage of the incident obtained by The Mail on Sunday also shows Andrews dragging a terrified Ms Somerville across the floor.

It was, she says, the first time she had been inside a police station. Not having had ‘so much as a parking ticket before’ it was also her first encounter of any kind with the police. ‘I am just an ordinary, middle-aged, middle-class Miss Goody Two-Shoes. I had done absolutely nothing wrong,’ she said.

‘What happened to me was extraordinary, terrifying, and no one should ever be treated in the same way again, no matter what they are said to have done. 'It’s the kind of thing that might go on in a tin-pot dictatorship in Latin America, maybe, but not in rural Wiltshire.’

Police took Ms Somerville into custody after she spent the night asleep in her car in a rural lane. They say she was arrested because she refused to provide a breath sample – something she strongly denies. Although she was later charged, the police dropped the case against her....

She awoke at around 8.30am and, after getting out of the car, saw a female community police officer walking towards her. ‘I was delighted to see her,’ said Ms Somerville. ‘I asked her if she had some jump leads but she walked off as if to make a call.’ Within minutes a patrol car pulled up alongside her Mercedes estate and two police officers, one male and one female, got out.

‘I asked if they had brought the jump leads but they simply said, “Shut up. We are the f****** police.” Then they pushed me on to the back of the car, pushed my arms up high behind my back and handcuffed me very roughly.

'I was astounded and assumed it was a case of mistaken identity. One of the officers was particularly aggressive and kept telling me to shut up when I asked what was happening.’

Ms Somerville admits she became angry and abusive when the two officers repeatedly refused to explain why they wanted to take her to a police station. ‘I came out with a few choice expletives when they kept telling me to shut up, and the male officer used the F-word again when I told him he was making a mistake.’

It was on arrival at Melksham police station, where cameras are installed in the custody suite and holding cells, that Ms Somerville first encountered Sgt Andrews.

CCTV footage shows Ms Somerville flanked by two officers as she stands handcuffed at the front desk at around 10.20am.

An edited version of the film was later used in evidence against Andrews. There is some sound, but only at the start, and the timings at the bottom of the screen appear to be out of sequence in places.

Before taking her to a cell, Andrews shouts from behind his desk: ‘Oh shut up. Listen to me. You are in my custody now and you will be quiet and you will listen. Do you understand?’

Ms Somerville admits shouting at the officer, but only because he would not explain why she had been arrested. She was then taken to a cell. ‘I was starting to become very frightened by then,’ she said.

Later that morning, police eventually called paramedics who took Ms Somerville to the Royal United Hospital in Bath.

‘I can remember trying to explain to the paramedics that I didn’t understand why I was there,’ she said. ‘When they saw blood coming from my mouth, they put the sirens on and I was taken straight into A&E. I thought to myself, “This is it, Pam. You’re going to die.” I was still concussed.’

During the several hours she spent in hospital she was kept in handcuffs and accompanied by two police officers, despite protests from nurses.

‘The officers at the hospital wouldn’t let me call my partner, or anyone. I said it was my right and they replied that it might be like that on American TV programmes but not here.’

After the gash above her eyes was stitched and her head X-rayed, she was driven back to the police station.

‘My eye was still bleeding and one of the officers told me off because he would have to clean the blood off the back seat of the car,’ she said.

Soon after returning, at 6.45pm, she was charged with failing to provide a specimen of breath and released on bail. Officers told her she would have to take a taxi home but when she started vomiting outside the station, they called an ambulance and she was taken back to hospital.

Her partner John, who still thought she was staying at her daughter’s, was eventually told about her whereabouts by a community policeman, who told him she had been arrested and was injured. ‘John burst into tears when he saw me at the hospital covered in blood with my eye closed and swollen,’ Ms Somerville said.

At his Wiltshire home yesterday, Sgt Andrews declined to comment. He sped off in a Honda Civic, the hood of his anorak pulled tightly around his face.

In a statement, Assistant Chief Constable Patrick Geenty said: ‘The court has heard from a number of witnesses in connection with an incident within the custody suite at Melksham police station two years ago which resulted in a 57-year-old woman sustaining an injury to her head.

‘We are very concerned when anyone is injured while in our custody and the court has decided that this injury was as a result of a criminal assault by Sgt Mark Andrews, a member of Wiltshire Police who was performing duty as a custody sergeant at the time.

‘We respect the decision of the court and the force has formally apologised to the injured lady for the assault she suffered while in our care.

'The incident was reported by another police officer within the custody centre who was concerned at what had taken place.

'The officer found herself in a very difficult situation created by her own supervisor but performed her duty to the highest standards in bringing this unacceptable incident to the attention of another supervisor.

‘As soon as the incident was brought to attention, the officer concerned was removed from public-facing duties and the incident was voluntarily referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission who decided they would be satisfied with a local investigation by the force itself. 'This investigation resulted in a file being sent to the CPS which led to the trial of Sgt Andrews.

‘The public have a right to expect that the police will always act with their safety and welfare as their first priority. 'This is especially so when in police custody and considerable effort and importance is placed on ensuring that processes, systems, training and staff attitude is directed towards facing up to that responsibility.

‘Some 16,000 people a year are dealt with in police custody centres in Wiltshire and the public will understand that this environment is a very difficult one with hostility, conflict, violence towards staff and unpredictability.

'That does not excuse any unacceptable or unlawful behaviour by police officers or staff but it is important to put this difficult job into context.

More here. (Video at link)


(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today. Now hosted on Wordpress. If you cannot access it, go to the MIRROR SITE, where posts appear as well as on the primary site. I have reposted the archives (past posts) for Wicked Thoughts HERE or HERE or here