Investigation rejects claim man was handcuffed to a bin

Published Date: Mar 2016

A Police Ombudsman investigation has rejected claims that police handcuffed a man to a bin while they searched him in north Belfast last September.

The man, who had been stopped by police under the Justice and Security Act, said an officer pushed him against the door of his car, forced his forearm against his throat and threatened him.

The man also claimed that the officer was hostile towards him and threatened him.

When interviewed by a Police Ombudsman investigator, the officer denied the allegations and said he had acted professionally towards the man at all times. His colleagues supported his account.

The investigator also examined CCTV evidence recorded from a police Land Rover. The beginning of the incident was not captured, but the footage showed that the man had been handcuffed behind his back, and not to a bin.

The footage was also found not to support the man’s account of the arresting officer having been hostile towards him.

Attempts to identify two witnesses captured on the CCTV footage were unsuccessful, and in the absence of any further evidence, the investigator concluded that there was insufficient evidence to uphold the man’s allegation that he had been assaulted by the officer.

 

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