A Lancashire Police Custody Sergeant has been accused of assault by beating, contrary to Section 39 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988.
Lancashire Police Sergeant 3550 Hussain of Preston Police Station is accused of using unnecessary and unreasonable force against a detainee who is alleged to have been unlawfully arrested and detained.
The detainee was accused of unsubstantiated offences that had previously been filed as NFA (No Further Action) by Inspector Danny Clough of Lancashire Police. However, the dissatisfied and disgruntled female contacted the police again and repeated her duplicated complaint.
Inspector Danny Clough has confirmed that the duplicated complaint had been picked up by a different team in Lancashire Police who went off and arrested the man without undertaking any necessary verification. Insp Clough claimed he had no idea the man had been arrested.
After authorising the detention at Preston Custody Suite, Sgt Hussain asked another police officer to search the man.
S54 of PACE permits searches of detainees (so long as the detention was lawful), but detainees have no obligation to assist in the search, so long as they do not resist.
The detainee was told by the officer (tasked with the search) to remove his shoes. The detainee refused, telling the officer that if he wanted the shoes removed to search them, he (the PC) was free to untie the laces and remove the shoes.
The officer refused to do this, thereby refusing to carry out the task assigned to him by Sgt Hussain.
There was some arguing about the search and who should remove the shoes, where the detainee made it clear that if the police insisted on searching the shoes, it was their responsibility to untie and remove them. No force was necessary.
There was no attempt by the detainee to resist or deny the ability for the police to undertake the Section 54 PACE search.
A pleasant CDO (Custody Detention Officer) standing with Sgt Hussain said she was happy to do it, but Sgt Hussain rejected her offer, saying, “I WILL DO IT.”
Hussain left the custody desk and approached the detainee. He asked the detainee if he would lift his leg back so he could remove the shoes.
The detainee rejected, instead asking Sgt Hussain to untie his laces. The detainee was freely standing with nothing to hold on to.
Rather than untying the detainee’s shoe (a reasonable request so it could be slipped off), Sgt Hussain, without any warning, used unreasonable and unnecessary force, grabbing the detainee’s right leg and dragging it backwards and upwards. Hussain then dragged the tightly laced shoe off the detainee’s foot, causing pain and making the detainee stumble, which required other police officers to take immediate action to prevent the detainee falling.
The custody sergeant then repeated this same use of unnecessary and unreasonable force on the detainee’s other foot.
When the detainee challenged the force, Sgt Hussain aggressively said, “Get out of my face“
The detainee then accused Hussain of assault, but Sgt Hussain defended his use of force by claiming he had a bad knee and was unable to bend down and untie the detainee’s shoes.
This shows that Hussain’s force was not necessary and therefore not reasonable, as other officers were present and willing to assist without using any force.
The detainee reported the assault and was later contacted by Insp 2719 Jamie O’Dwyer, the Custody Management Inspector. As the action was an alleged assault by beating, the detainee asked for the crime reference number. Inspector O’Dwyer replied:
At this moment in time, no crime report will be submitted.
A crime report must be submitted if, on the balance of probability:
(a) the circumstances of the victim’s report amount to a crime defined by law (the police will determine this, based on their knowledge of the law and the counting rules); and
(b) there is no credible evidence to the contrary immediately available.I have had an initial view of the CCTV and listened to the associated audio recording, and my initial findings would suggest that the sergeant was acting lawfully under S54 and S117 PACE.
Section 54 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE) governs the search of detained persons in police custody. There was no challenge to the search taking place; the challenge was only about the use of unnecessary and unreasonable force.
Section 117 of PACE, however, governs the use of force, in that an officer may use reasonable force, if necessary, in the exercise of the power.
What Inspector Jamie O’Dwyer has completely ignored is that the force must be necessary, which it clearly was not.
Sgt Hussain’s justification was that he had a bad knee, that does not justify any force.
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