The Police Ombudsman has said a police officer was right to have used CS Spray on a man during a search of a house in Ballymena. 

For a limited period following the introduction of CS Spray, the Police Ombudsman's Office was asked to investigate all uses of the device by officers.

One such incident happened on the evening of December 22 2004 when uniformed police were searching a house in the Fisherwick area.

On arrival at the house the officers went to both the front and rear doors of the property.

The officers at the front door spoke to the woman who owned the property and who let them in.  They were explaining their reasons for the visit when a man who was in the house became abusive.

The officers asked him to calm down and asked him his name.  The man pushed one of the officers backwards and then went "nose to nose" with another officer, shouting abuse in his face.

One of the police officers said he believed the man was about to assault the officer he was shouting at. The officer, who was wearing a boiler suit, could not get easy access to his baton.  He then warned the man that CS Spray would be used if he did not calm down. This warning went unheeded and the officer used the spray. The man was then arrested. 

Outside the house the man tried to escape into a neighbouring garden and continued to struggle violently with the police.  By this time a crowd had gathered and some of them tried to help the man escape. The police requested backup and the man was subsequently re-arrested.  He has since appeared in court and been convicted of assaulting police.

Police Ombudsman investigators visited the scene and established there was no forensic or CCTV evidence to help establish what had happened. The investigators carried out house-to-house inquiries and two people provided statements of what happened.

It is believed that a member of the crowd watching what happened had videoed events that night. That person did not come forward to help the Police Ombudsman investigation.

The Police Ombudsman Mrs Nuala O'Loan has concluded that the officer was right to use the spray:

"The officer was in a situation where he had to make a sudden decision. The man had been very abusive and it appeared that he was about to assault a police officer. The police officer discharged his spray in an attempt to prevent such an assault," she said.

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