Police officer denies attacking violent prisoner

A POLICE officer accused of assaulting a violent prisoner who had made 29 unsubstantiated complaints against the police in two-and-a-half-years appeared in court yesterday.

Glynn Dutton, 36, is said to have pushed Hasan Mumtaz while in the holding area at Trafalgar House police station, Bradford, in June last year.

Magistrates in Sheffield were shown CCTV footage of the incident, which showed the officer shove Mumtaz, who was handcuffed, down on to a bench and then struggle with him before several other officers arrive to help.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

During the tussle it is alleged that Mumtaz grabbed Dutton’s testicles leaving him in “excruciating” pain.

Giving evidence from the dock, as the police officer sat behind his lawyer, Mumtaz said he was attacked for no reason.

The court heard Mumtaz was arrested on an outstanding warrant at Bradford Crown Court on June 18 last year before he was transported to the police station and left alone for a short time with Dutton.

Mumtaz told the court the officer told him: “Oi, sit down” and said: “You do what I tell you to do.” He said Dutton said it in a “proper, bullying” way.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Mumtaz told the magistrates: “I said ‘I’m not a dog’.” Then, he said, the officer attacked him.

But Adrian Keeling, defending, asked Mumtaz about a series of convictions he has for violence and drug dealing.

He also asked him why he had made 29 unsubstantiated complaints about the police in a two-and-half-year period from June 2007, which he said was more than one a month.

Mumtaz said: “There’s even more than that.”

Mr Keeling said: “Everything from investigations not being carried out properly to being assaulted. The whole calendar, you’ve complained about.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Dutton, of Cleckheaton, denies one count of common assault.

Mr Keeling listed Mumtaz’s previous convictions which included a two-and-half-year sentence at Preston Crown Court in May 2004 for violent disorder and unlawful wounding following an incident in which a man was stabbed to death.

He said that, five months after he was released, he was given a nine-month sentence for assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

In August 2007 he was jailed for 10 months for possessing heroin and crack cocaine with intent to supply.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Last year, he was convicted of a public order offence at Keighley Magistrates’ Court and, in July 2010, he was given a sentence of 21 months at Bradford Crown Court for affray.

Mumtaz is still a serving prisoner, the court heard.

Mr Keeling said to him: “The simple truth of the matter is that you seek confrontation with the police at every turn, don’t you? You’re a violent man who’s prepared to talk with his fists, aren’t you? You were faced with a perfectly reasonable request to sit down and you refused.”

Sgt Gary Bramhall, the co-ordinator of personal safety training for South Yorkshire, told the court that in his opinion “the push away was not appropriate in the circumstances”.

He said having watched the CCTV footage the threat that Mumtaz presented did not seem to match the officer’s response. He added: “I don’t think the knee strikes were appropriate. From seeing that CCTV Mumtaz doesn’t appear to offer any violence towards that officer.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

But cross-examined by Mr Keeling, Mr Bramhall admitted that only a partial picture emerged from watching the CCTV footage. Mr Keeling said: “The thing you can’t do from CCTV is to know what it’s like to be in that position?”

Mr Bramhall said: “Yes.”

The court heard that Dutton told interviewing officers: “The force I used was reasonable and appropriate in the circumstances.”

He told detectives he was faced with an agitated man, with a violent record, who had an aggressive demeanour.

Dutton told the interviewing officers he feared for his safety and thought Mumtaz would pose less of a threat if he was sitting. “I felt a little bit intimidated,” he said. “I felt a little bit scared.”

The trial will resume today.