A police officer who kicked and hit a
mother as she sat by the hospital bed of her sick child, leaving her
with more than 40 injuries, has been cleared of actual bodily harm.
Warren Luke, 38, a Metropolitan police
officer, was accused of repeatedly kicking and punching the 41-year-old
woman, who, hospital staff had said to him, was refusing to leave. But a
jury at Wood Green crown court on Thursday cleared Luke of committing
any crime.
The mother, who cannot be named for
legal reasons, was caring for her seven-year-old daughter, who suffers
from cerebral palsy, when the incident happened at a London hospital in
December 2013.
The court heard how an argument ensued
when the mother refused to leave the hospital room at the request of
staff and Luke was one of four police officers called to the hospital to
resolve the incident.
In a video interview played to the jury,
the mother said Luke had told her: “‘You’ve got to leave, you’ve got to
leave’. I kept playing with my daughter and then I saw him moving
towards me. He was kicking me and kicking me. He had one hand on my
head. When I fell on the bed he grabbed my hair and banged my head. I
was screaming. I couldn’t defend myself. My ex-husband ran in and
shouted, ‘why are you kicking my wife?’”
Luke, who has been a police officer for
six years, told the court that the mother’s behaviour had been
“escalating” and he felt the child was at risk of injury. He said he had
contemplated using a baton or CS gas but decided that that was not an
option.
Instead, he told the court, he struck
the mother repeatedly on her left bicep and then decided to try a
different approach which he described as a “distraction strike” on the
left side of the mother’s face, using his booted foot.
Luke told the court: “I did kick out at the left side of her face as trained to do. My footwear was a boot but it’s light.”
When asked how he had caused so many
different injuries to the mother he said: “I can’t say exactly where and
how her injuries were sustained, I can only say what I did.”
The woman told the Guardian she needed
plastic surgery following the incident and has been off work for more
than a year recovering from her injuries.
Luke accused the mother of grabbing his
groin during the attack, which she denied. He said he had acted to
protect the child and was concerned that the mother had grabbed her arm
and that the child was in danger of falling off the bed and becoming
disconnected from the hospital machines.
When asked in court if he had used full
force on a mother refusing to leave the hospital, he said: “I wouldn’t
say that I used full force but I do remember hitting harder because it
had no effect. I used police tactics with good reason that were
absolutely necessary. I didn’t go too far. Whenever a police officer
uses force you need to be accountable for it.”
Security staff at the hospital who
witnessed the incident told the court they were appalled by it. Two
police constables who also attended the incident gave evidence for the
prosecution. Laura Riley, one of the officers, wept as she described the
scene, and the officer Mary Clark described the incident as “just
horrific”.
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