Law student claims arrest unlawful as he denies assault

A LAW student detained after allegedly injuring a policewoman during a Carnage UK pub crawl said yesterday that his arrest was "unacceptable and unlawful".

Well-built second-year Sheffield University undergraduate Jamie McGregor had to be restrained by five police officers after he was refused entry to Players Bar in Sheffield city centre.

He told a Sheffield Crown Court jury that the officers were "heavy-handed" and dragged him across the street after bouncers refused him entry to the venue when he tried to queue jump.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

McGregor, who was celebrating his 20th birthday, is alleged to have left Sgt Katherine Wallis with a dislocated knee, broken tooth and black eye during the struggle.

But he told the jury he was "unsure" how the officer received her injuries as he was temporarily blinded by a pepper spray which the police used three times to subdue him.

He denied raising or clenching his fists before he was handcuffed and bundled into a police van and said: "I was simply trying to resist the force that was being exerted upon me."

McGregor said he had downed three or four glasses of home-made punch before setting out that evening on the notorious bar crawl which happened four months after a student outraged the public by urinating on the city's war memorial during a Carnage event.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

He said he was not drunk but admitted trying to jump the queue at Players bar on West Street.

McGregor, who was wearing an orange boiler suit at the time, said: "I found myself being dragged across the road by the police. I was confused as to what was going on."

He said he was not proud of what happened and regretted that the officer got injured. In hindsight he should have walked away.

Cross-examined by prosecutor Paul Reid, the second-year law student said he only realised after his arrest that it was unlawful.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

He denied he was a "fighting man out of control". He said: "I did not strike out at the female officer."

His friend Adam Barlow said he had shouted to calm down McGregor and let the police know he had done nothing wrong.

McGregor, whose home address is Stockport, Cheshire denies one offence of causing actual bodily harm.

The trial continues.

Related topics: