'Tired' London police officer 'stamped’ on handcuffed black teenager's back as he lay face down on floor in custody, court hears

Most unwise to taunt ANY cop

A teenager told a court today that a Metropolitan police officer stamped on his back while he was in custody, 'dropping his whole body' on him.

PC Joseph Harrington, 29, from Walthamstow in east London, denies assaulting the boy in a caged area at Forest Gate police station days after the London riots in 2011.

The teenager, who was 15-years-old during the alleged attack, told Southwark Crown Court: 'It was painful, I’ve never felt like that before. I couldn’t breathe properly.'

He also said that PC Harrington had also put his hands round his neck a few days before in a London park.

The teenager said: 'I was in a park with my friends, police were coming in with cameras, taking pictures, and we walked away.

'They came back in riot uniforms and were running towards us.

'I stayed where I was, and waited for them to come towards me, and Joe Harrington said I needed to go. I said, ‘my friend’s house is here, I have nowhere else to go’.

The teenager said that PC Harrington then pushed him up against a wall.

A few days later on August 11 the teenager was arrested for an alleged public order offence and was taken from Stratford police station, east London to Forest Gate police station.

He was in the caged area when PC Harrington walked in. The teenager said he asked if PC Harrington remembered him.

PC Harrington said no. Then the boy acted out putting his hands around his own neck with his handcuffs on and said, ‘do you remember when you did this to me?”’

According to the boy, Harrington replied, ‘it wasn’t me, I wasn’t there, I wasn’t working those days’. Then Harrington said 'do you want it to happen again?’

The teenager said that he laughed at him: 'I thought. I’m already arrested for something I haven’t done, I’m handcuffed, in a police cage, what could get worse?'

Then an older policeman grabbed him by his jacket, which ripped, and they dragged him across the floor, the teenager said.

Harrington then stamped on his back, he added. 'He stamped on me with his foot and held me there with his foot, then dropped his whole body on me.' This continued for eight seconds.

The teenager said: 'A lady came and said, ‘get off him’, I couldn’t really see what was happening, because my vision was blurry.'

He remained in custody overnight and went to a GP three days later: 'I was still in pain, on my spine.'

PC Harrington denies the charge, saying that he dropped his right knee on to the teenager's back so he could reposition his handcuffs to behind his back.

He told investigators from the Independent Police Complaints Commission that in the run up to the incident he had been working a 24-hour shift and had worked 100 hours in five days.

Original report here




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