Met officer who hit boy in face found guilty of assault

A female Metropolitan Police officer who struck a 16-year-old boy with mental health difficulties "multiple times in the face with an open palm" as he was being taken to hospital has been found guilty of assault.

PC Sevda Gonen, 33, was found guilty by Judge Briony Clarke at Westminster Magistrates Court on Friday.

Both she and Met Police constable, Stuart Price, 35, were also found guilty of carrying out an unlawful search, amounting to assault by beating.

The incident took place in November last year when police were called to a report of the the teenager being aggressive in his own home.

It was alleged that he acted violently towards a mental health worker who was trying to assess him.

The court saw camera footage from inside the vehicle on the way to the boy's home in Cambridgeshire, which heard the two officers exchange derogatory remarks about the boy.

PC Gonen said of the boy: "I've had enough of him".

PC Gonen apologised for the remarks on Thursday, telling the court that the conversation was "in the heat of the moment".

PC Price offered to drive the boy to hospital in a police vehicle after his mother told officers she was concerned for her son's welfare.

The boy then climbed into the police vehicle but left his foot out, preventing the rear door from closing, the court heard.

Footage from inside the police vehicle showed the boy lit a cigarette and started to smoke.

The court heard that, after a struggle, the boy was placed in handcuffs but not arrested and was searched after officers expressed concern he could have something in his pockets.

PC Price wrote in a subsequent use of force form that the boy had "actively offered resistance to his colleague's efforts to take his cigarette", with PC Gonen writing in her form the boy offered "aggressive resistance".

PC Gonen said the boy's smoking made her "panic" as there were "huge safety risks", adding that she suffers from asthma and smoking in the vehicle was "criminal damage".

'Hot to touch'

In bodycam footage shown in court, PC Price can be heard telling PC Gonen: "Just to let you know he's been spitting in my face."

The officers then agreed to section the boy and PC Gonen told the teenager that he was being sectioned under the Mental Health Act.

Gonen said she was worried about him spitting, so put a coat collar by his mouth, the court heard.

The boy's eyes lowered and he became less responsive, with PC Price heard to say: "You alright, mate? We're just trying to help you mate."

PC Price then said to PC Gonen: "Yeah, he's hot to touch."

In further footage shown to the court, PC Gonen then appears to slap the boy's face several times - 16 times by the judge's count - while holding him by the hair, causing his eyes to flicker.

PC Gonen defended her actions by telling the court she was not trying to hurt him and that it was for the boy's safety.

"Any time there was a concern for his life, I decided the best course of action was to gently slap him on his cheeks," she said.

"At that moment in time I thought I was saving somebody's life. I thought I was preventing a medical emergency from occurring."

PC Price also told the court that the search was to "prevent further offences taking place".

The prosecution argued that the search was unlawful as the boy had not been arrested and the officers had no powers to search him under Section 32 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act or Section 136 of the Mental Health Act.

The judge said she was satisfied that the search was unlawful, that the officers were not conducting a search to prevent crime, and that they carried out the search "giving no thoughts to what power they had or even if they had any powers".

She also said it was clear in her view that PC Gonen thought the boy was "faking it", then "sought to explain her behaviour by reference to a known medical condition suggested to her at the time by another colleague".

'Unlawful use of force'

The Metropolitan Police referred the case to the police conduct watchdog the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) in December last year, and the file was passed a file to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in April.

IOPC regional director Mel Palmer said: "These officers made no effort to explain their actions and in fact, both gave the IOPC different accounts as to what powers they were performing the search under. Today a judge has found that the search of the child was unlawful."

He went on to condemn PC Gonen's actions saying that "slapping the child to check he was conscious is not an approved method and was found to be a further unlawful use of force".

The IOPC said it is in discussions with the Metropolitan Police over disciplinary proceedings.

Gonen and Price will be sentenced on 24 January.