£250,000 damages for victim of racist police beating
01 January 2003
A middle-aged black delivery driver, who was violently assaulted, racially abused and falsely arrested by the Metropolitan police was awarded nearly £250,000 damages at Central London county court at the beginning of February. Sylbert Farquharson, who was described by Judge Michael Dean as "a respectable middle-aged family man of good character", brought a civil case against the force following his arrest in 1995 while making a delivery to a south London company that was in the process of being searched by police officers when he arrived. The award includes exemplary damages, which are awarded against defendants who have acted "in an oppressive, arbitrary or unconstitutional manner as agents of the state".
Sylbert Farquharson was delivering bread to a business that was being searched by police officers. Cafe owner Clinton Washington was arrested, after policemen observed him waving to a man in a car, on suspicion of drug dealing. Sylbert's cousin, Stephen Smith, intervened and he too was arrested, for obstructing a police officer in the course of his duty. When Sylbert tried to discover what was taking place he was, in the words of Judge Michael Dean, "assaulted by three police officers and thrown face down in the gutter in the presence of members of the public who were rightly appalled."
Sylbert was then handcuffed so tightly that he suffered paralysis to his right arm and is no longer able to work as a driver, suffering from chronic pain syndrome. He was "subjected to explicit racist abuse in the street and a particularly cowardly form of racist abuse at the police station." Both Mr Farquharson and his cousin were prosecuted in a case Judge Dean said was brought to disguise the officers unlawful actions: "Unhappily, the officers felt obliged to invent an account of events which they knew to be untrue in order to justify their actions".
After the police case was thrown out of court Sylbert proceeded with his civil case at the conclusion to which Judge Dean ruled that he had been assaulted, falsely imprisoned and maliciously prosecuted. The judge awarded him £243,488 exemplary damages saying that he was satisfied that Sylbert would never work again due to the injuries he sustained in the assault. It is reported that the police will also have to pay legal costs for Sylbert's claim that are estimated at £750,000. The Metropolitan police have already settled claims of £80,000 for Stephen Smith and Clinton Washington in out of court settlements.
In its initial response to the court's findings the Metropolitan police removed two of the police officers from frontline duty, but refused to suspend them. The following day PC Trevor Brown and Brixton community relations officer Kevin Bridgemen were suspended and three other officers were removed from frontline duty. In "a message to the black community" Lambeth's acting commander, Brian Moore, said "I fully accept the damage this judgement has done to your confidence in us...". As a final part of their damage-limitation exercise Scotland Yard announced that the two officers at the centre of the attack would be investigated by the Professional Standards Directorate and could face prosecution for assault and racist abuse.
A separate "vicious attack", involving another police officer in south London, saw the perpetrator jailed for battery at Southwark crown court in February. PC Matthew Dunn, who was caught on CCTV taking a running "penalty kick" at his prostrate victim, Jason Hughes, was jailed for three months. Judge Christopher Elwen says that "The evidence plainly shows that when Hughes was brought to the ground you got out of your car, ran up past the car in front and without pausing kicked him twice." Dunn had argued that he had used "reasonable force" and that he had merely crossed a narrow dividing line between what is lawful and what is not. He will appeal against the conviction. The other officers, who did not intervene or prevent the assault, were cleared of any<