North Wales Police custody officer given misconduct warning

Captor spray is used by police as a temporary incapacitant spray

A police custody sergeant has been cleared of 13 out of 14 allegations of unnecessarily using pepper spray on detainees.

Sgt Melvin Dawson was accused of using unreasonable force against 14 detainees in Caernarfon during 2018 and 2019.

He admitted using Captor incapacitant spray, but denied his actions were unreasonable.

He was given a written warning for one charge of misconduct by a disciplinary tribunal at North Wales Police.

On that count, the panel found the allegations proven, but that his actions were misconduct, rather than gross misconduct.

In some of the cases, the detainees had been attempting to flood their cells, banging heads against cell walls or even threatening suicide, the tribunal at police headquarters in Colwyn Bay heard.

Captor spray is a form of pepper spray, used by police forces to temporarily incapacitate someone.

Det Ch Insp Dan Tipton, deputy head of professional standards at North Wales Police, said: "This has been a protracted hearing over four weeks, in which the tribunal determined that there was only one case to answer for misconduct in respect of a breach of the standards of professional behaviour and the officer has been issued with a written warning.

"A number of recommendations for learning have been identified as part of the investigation by the IOPC [Independent Office of Police Conduct] and we are already examining them as part of our internal governance arrangements."