A Brighton police officer has been given a written warning for misconduct after unnecessarily hurting a 15-year-old boy while restraining him.
A hearing at Sussex Police’s headquarters in Lewes was told that PC Daniel Patterson’s actions amounted to a breach of the required standards of professional behaviour.
PC Patterson punched the boy in the face and kicked him but these actions did not amount to misconduct.
The boy resisted arrest for a breach of the peace on Wednesday 18 January last year.
He had been thrown out of the family home by his parents for smoking cannabis. He was not charged.
When PC Patterson kept pressing the pressure points behind the youngster’s ear, the teenager had by then been arrested. He was face down on the ground.
The officer pushed the boy’s pressure point five times while three other officers also held him down and he screamed in pain.
Two officers raised concerns with their bosses about the officer’s behaviour.
The misconduct hearing was told that PC Patterson’s use of force “was not reasonable, proportionate and necessary in the circumstances”.
The hearing was told: “It is alleged that such conduct amounts to a breach of the standards of professional behaviour in relation to the use of force and deemed as so serious as to amount to gross misconduct.”
But PC Patterson, who has served as an officer for nine years, was found guilty of misconduct rather than the more serious charge of gross misconduct.
Cruel bustard