It’s PC gone mad!
Judge slams police after officer who ‘ barged into’ his female job rival is hauled to court for assault
A JUDGE criticised police yesterday for putting a top counter-terrorism officer on trial for allegedly shoulder barging a female colleague in an ‘absurd’ incident at Scotland Yard.
Superintendent Andrew Johnstone, 51, was accused of assaulting Chief Inspector Penelope Mills at a Metropolitan Police leadership course.
The momentary brush between the pair happened during a ‘senior leadership insight event’ for high-ranking officers seeking a promotion at New Scotland Yard on January 17. No one was hurt and the alleged victim admitted she ‘didn’t think it was a crime’.
Yet the clash, which Mr Johnstone described as ‘absurd’, led to him being placed on restrictive duties while he faced a six-month criminal investigation by his own force before he was charged with assault by beating.
Yesterday a judge threw out the case at Westminster Magistrates’ Court after a one-day trial likely to have cost thousands.
District Judge Richard Blake said: ‘ I do invite those who brought the prosecution to pause and consider the evidence – whether this prosecution would have been brought if this happened in a tea room, at a bus station, and whether it was appropriate to bring this prosecution.’
He said of the contact at the crowded event: ‘If you go to these events you touch people accidentally. There’s a line between touching somebody accidentally and deliberately.
‘I can’t be sure up to the appropriate standard of proof that you Trial: Mr Johnstone yesterday committed this offence.’ He added: ‘I have heard about grievances within senior ranks of the police service… These are matters for other places and other days, not before me.’
The clash between the pair happened as the officers – both then chief inspectors in the Met’s Roads and Transport Policing Command – were competing for the same superintendent job, which Mr Johnstone later got.
As they were leaving the event, Miss Mills claimed she was deliberately pushed forward. She said she reported the incident when she realised it was Mr Johnstone because she had previously made a separate complaint about his management style in 2017.
Miss Mills, who is also separately taking the force to an employment tribunal, said: ‘I felt a barge… It pushed me forward but didn’t cause me any injury but certainly moved me.’
Under cross examination, she admitted the knock didn’t hurt and that she ‘didn’t initially think much, if anything, of it’.
When Miss Mills, who became a police officer in 1989, was asked why she didn’t make a note of the alleged assault, she replied: ‘I didn’t think of it as a crime.’
Yesterday her colleague Detective Chief Inspector Claire Moxon told the court Mr Johnstone did not apologise for the knock.
But Gerry Boyle QC, for Mr Johnstone, said: ‘It’s a sorry state of affairs indeed if you could be guilty of an assault because after an impact you didn’t say sorry.’
Mr Johnstone was acquitted after his barrister petitioned the judge to throw out the case.
He told the court he was in a good mood during the leadership event as he had secured an interview for promotion to the royal and parliamentary protection department. He added: ‘I didn’t shoulder barge Penny Mills going through that crowd. It’s as if I was travelling coming in on a tube train – I know I’m going to touch people within the journey.
‘My own mum could have been standing in that group of people and I would not have noticed.’
The judge said he received 31 good character references about the defendant.
Yesterday the Police Superintendents’ Association said: ‘We are deeply troubled that this case was ever considered for referral to the Crown Prosecution Service, let alone brought to trial.’
The Met said: ‘The matter was subsequently referred to the Crown Prosecution Service who advised the officer should be charged. He is currently on restricted duties – this will be reviewed.’
‘A sorry state of affairs’