Police officer cleared of assaulting drug dealer and serial complainer

Pc Glynn Dutton, 36, was captured on CCTV pushing Hasan Mumtaz in a custody suite at Trafalgar House police station, in Bradford, in June last year.

The officer told Sheffield magistrates he had become concerned for his safety when Mumtaz refused to sit down, especially given the prisoner’s violent background and convictions for drug dealing.

It emerged during a two-day trial that Mumtaz had served a number of prison terms for serious violent offences and is currently serving a 21-month sentence for affray.

The magistrates were also told how Mumtaz was a “serial complainer”, having clocked up at least 29 complaints against West Yorkshire officers over a two-and-a-half-year period, none of which were substantiated.

As Pc Dutton hugged supporters outside the court, Ned Liddemore, from the West Yorkshire branch of the Police Federation, said: “There are no words that can express how a police officer feels when he or she is accused of any offence, never mind one of such a serious nature. Nonetheless, justice has prevailed and Pc Dutton has been acquitted.”

Pc Dutton, of Bridon Way, Cleckheaton, West Yorkshire, was cleared of one count of common assault.

The court heard the incident began at Bradford Crown Court on June 18 last year, when Pc Dutton and a female officer were called to arrest Mumtaz, who was wanted on a warrant and was causing problems in the building.

Mumtaz, who gave evidence from the dock flanked by a security guard, told the court he was attacked for no reason. But Pc Dutton said he was concerned for his safety after the prisoner had refused to sit down.