A West Yorkshire Police officer has been sentenced for thumping a youth in the face when he was detained in the cage of a police van.
Jacob Swallow, 25, who (currently) works in the Bradford area, denied a charge of assault by beating but was convicted following trial at York Magistrates' Court on Thursday, 30th March 2023.
He was back at the same court for sentencing on Wednesday, 28th June 2023.
Assault by beating, an offence contrary to section 39 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988, has a maximum penalty of 26 weeks' custody on summary conviction.
The circumstances of the assault were described in a press release on the West Yorkshire Police website: "The charge relates to an incident in Keighley on 15th June 2022.
"Police were called to a report of a disturbance and a 17-year-old male was handcuffed and placed in the rear cage of a police van. After the cage doors were closed, the male started banging his head against the cage door. Two officers opened the van door to restrain him, and he bit one of the officers.
"After the cage doors were closed again, the male continued banging his head. At this point, PC Swallow opened the van door and punched the male once to the face, causing his head to recoil backwards and bang against the back of the cage, resulting in a bleeding nose."
According to reports, footage of the offence was captured on Swallow's body worn camera - footage which disproves Swallow's account that the youth assaulted him first.
District Judge Adrian Lower was clearly of the opinion that the offence was so serious that only a custodial sentence was appropriate, but he elected to suspend the period of custody no doubt on the basis that Swallow has a realistic prospect of rehabilitation.
Addressing the defendant, DJ Lower said: "You said in your incident statement he had assaulted you, he didn't.
"It was a clear abuse of power. You punched a drunk teenage boy in the face who was no threat to you."
The Judge also highlighted that the youth was in handcuffs at the time and had a much smaller stature than Swallow.
Swallow was sentenced to 22 weeks' custody suspended for 12 months, with the requirement that he completes 150 hours of unpaid work.
Such a sentence is certainly at the upper extremity of that available to the court, no doubt reflective of Swallow's abuse of power and the vulnerability (caged, drunk, handcuffed) of the youth concerned.
Swallow was also ordered to pay £200 in compensation, £128 surcharge and £620 towards prosecution costs.
He will now face a misconduct hearing, which will undoubtedly lead to his dismissal from West Yorkshire Police on the grounds of gross misconduct.
If there's one thing I find particularly galling, it's dishonest police officers who try to cover up their misdeeds.
Thankfully, the overwhelming majority of police officers are entirely honorable in their dealings with the public. We mustn't lose sight of that fact in the current climate of media police-bashing.
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