Cleared, cop accused of attacking driver with bodycams switched off
A POLICE officer who told colleagues to turn off their cameras before taking a young man round the corner and ‘clipping him round the ear’ has been cleared of assault.
PC Ian Smellie, 64, took off his bodycam vest and police lanyard before ‘ushering’ Rafik Miah away from other officers at 12.45am.
He was heard telling the 24-yearold ‘let’s deal with this man to man’ before apparently slapping the side of his head after a stop and search ended in failure.
Mr Smellie, of Holloway, north London, was yesterday found not guilty of assault by beating after District Judge Sam Goozee said he ‘could not piece together’ the evidence.
During a search of Mr Miah’s car in Stoke Newington, north London after officers ‘smelled cannabis’ on November 10 last year the ‘foulmouthed’ claimant called PC Kirsty Thatcher a ‘f***ing stupid b***h’ and told Mr Smellie: ‘I’d like to f**k your b***h’. After police confirmed the search was ‘negative’ Mr Miah said: ‘Maybe next time. You keep stopping people until you find something.’
At this point PC Smellie interrupted a colleague and shouted: ‘No, hold on, hold on – turn the cameras off’ before taking his vest off and taking Mr Miah ‘by the wrist’.
Dashcam footage showed the officer ‘guiding’ the claimant around the corner and two officers present claimed they saw him ‘clip’ his ear.
Mr Miah told the court Mr Smellie threw ‘two punches’.
Judge Goozee told City of London magistrates’ court: ‘It may well have been a very unwise decision from Mr Smellie to take off his vest and camera and walk Mr Miah to Kyverdale Road.
‘These actions by themselves may appear suspicious but this is not one of those cases where piecing together all the evidence may lead me to the inevitable conclusion that Mr Miah was deliberately punched by Mr Smellie.’
PC Bradley Francis, who was at the incident, told the court he saw the men ‘square up to each other’ before Mr Smellie ‘raised his right arm and clipped Mr Miah round the ear’. PC Nicholas Cousins also said he heard Mr Smellie raise his arm and ‘clip’ Mr Miah. Kevin Baumber, defending, said there was ‘no case to answer’ and the PCs who gave evidence agreed there was ‘no punch’.
THERESA MAy’s walking holidays seem to have dramatic consequences. The former Prime Minister — who hatched the idea of holding what turned out to be a disastrous General Election in 2017 after a hiking expedition with her husband, Philip — says their trips to the Swiss Alps have vividly brought home to her the effects of global warming. ‘We have walked around Rotenboden near the Gorner Glacier and over the years we have seen the glacier retreat at a remarkable rate,’ she tells me at a Westminster event. ‘It’s these personal experiences that bring home the reality of climate change.’