Damages against the police (2)
01 November 1991
Lancashire police have paid £35,000 compensation to 56-year old Mohammed Riaz after they wrongly arrested and detained him in 1986. Mr Riaz, who is diabetic and has a heart condition, said that despite suffering severe chest pains while in custody he was refused medicine. In a statement the police accepted "that Mr Riaz's prosecution was unjustified and that in opposing Mr Riaz's bail applications, the Lancashire police officers concerned were acting with an excess of zeal that cannot now be defended. The plaintiff is a man of exemplary character and suffered considerable distress, anxiety, humiliation and damage to his reputation."
The Metropolitan Police have paid £40,000 in damages to a black man, Leslie Burnett, a landscape gardener, following a claim of wrongful arrest, false imprisonment and assault. Burnett was arrested outside his front door, where he was beaten by truncheons and racially abused by police officers who fabricated a case against him, alleging that he had been tampering with a car. Burnett sued the Metropolitan Police who agreed to the settlement without admitting liability. Burnett said: "I am pleased but what about the police officers who would have sent me to jail? I would like to see them sacked or charged."
Sixty-one year old road sweeper Ernest Cusworth received £60,000 damages at Sheffield High court after a jury found South Yorkshire police guilty of wrongful arrest, false imprisonment and assault. Mr Cusworth, who was leaving for work, was charged by police in riot gear following picketing at Cortonwood Colliery during the miners' strike in 1984. He has not been able to return to work since then. In June South Yorkshire police agreed to pay £500,000 in damages and costs to former miners injured during clashes with police outside Orgreave coking plant, (see Statewatch 3). In October the Derbyshire police paid £50,000 in an out-of-court settlement to an ex-miner arrested for obstruction on the M1. He was later cleared and took out an action for alleged assault, wrongful arrest, and false imprisonment.
Independent, 15.3.91; Independent, 2.7.91; Guardian, 2.7.91; Police Review, 5.7.91; Guardian, 10.7.91;23.10.91.