Paralysed student arrest probe officer 'feared assault'

Julian Cole was left brain damaged and paralysed

A Bedfordshire police officer said she felt like she was "going to get assaulted" when arresting a man who suffered life-changing injuries after being punched outside a nightclub.

PC Hannah Ross told a hearing in Stevenage she "felt quite vulnerable" when approaching Julian Cole, then 20.

He was left brain damaged and paralysed after a scuffle outside Bedford's former Elements nightclub in May 2013.

PC Ross is one of four officers accused of gross misconduct over the arrest.

Sgt Andrew Withey and PCs Nicholas Oates and Sanjeev Kalyon have yet to appear.

Mr Cole, pictured with his mother Claudia, needs 24-hour care

Police were called to the nightclub at about 01:30 GMT on 6 May 2013.

Mr Cole had been ejected from the venue and had been refused a refund by door staff, so kept trying to get back in.

PC Ross, 36, told the hearing she asked Mr Cole's friends to take him home because of "the amount of aggression he was showing", but she then saw him lift his shirt above his face and run towards a bouncer, who "put him to the floor".

After helping to restrain Mr Cole's legs, PC Ross took the sports science student to a police van and arrested him.

She told the hearing it wasn't appropriate to do it outside the nightclub because "it was a volatile situation", adding she "felt quite vulnerable... I felt like we were going to get assaulted".

The officer recalled Mr Cole had "no visible injuries", but complained of neck pain in the van.

"I specifically asked him if he could feel his legs," PC Ross told the hearing.

"I specifically remember him moving his legs. I genuinely believed at the time he had full mobility."

Mark Ley-Morgan, counsel for Bedfordshire Police Professional Standards, accused PC Ross of deliberately writing a short account of what happened that night and said she had "selected amnesia".

Under cross-examination, the officer said she was "told to put minimal content".

The hearing continues.