UK: Black man awarded £302,000
01 May 1996
A young black man was awarded record damages of £302,000 against the Metropolitan Police on Friday 26th April 1996 for being hit by a constable with a truncheon after he had been handcuffed. It is believed to be the highest award by a jury against any police force.
Daniel Goswell, 29, was stopped and questioned by police officers in Plumstead, south-east London, on 11 November 1990. Police officers had gone to Ancona Road following a report that a stolen car was being raced up and down the cul--de-sac. Mr Goswell accepted that he shouted at the police officers, because the stop followed an arson attack on his home which he had reported to the police and which could have resulted in his death. He always felt that the police had been less than enthusiastic in investigating his complaint, and viewed this contact with the police as an opportunity to vent his sense of grievance. "Why are you hassling me when you couldn't be bothered to find the person who set fire to my flat" he asked the officers. When he continued to voice his complaint he was grabbed and handcuffed by three police officers, all much bigger than him. One police officer, PC Trigg an ex-guardsman, then struck him on the forehead with his truncheon causing a wound which required five stitches. PC Trigg said that he feared that he might be attacked. Mr Goswell subsequently suffered from headaches and blackouts and became an acholic as a consequence of the depressive state he developed.
Mr Goswell was charged with a public order offence and with two assaults on police officers. He was convicted of all three charges in the Magistrate's Court. He successfully appealed against the two assault charges to the Crown Court. He also complained to the Police Complaints Authority. For once some action was taken and PC Trigg was sacked from the police force. PC Trigg then appealed to the Home Secretary, Michael Howard, who appointed an appeals tribunal which counted amongst its members the ex-chief constable of Greater Manchester, Sir James Anderton. This tribunal chose to overturn the decision of the Commissioner of Police to sack PC Trigg.
When Mr Goswell began his action against The Commissioner it was accepted by the police that PC Trigg had used excessive force. Despite that admission and despite the fact that The Commissioner had found, on the criminal burden of proof - a higher standard than that required in a civil trial - that PC Trigg had truncheoned Mr. Goswell after he was handcuffed, they still defended the action. Indeed PC Trigg said in court that he felt no regret for what he had done and that the thought of apologising to Mr Goswell had not crossed his mind.
In addressing the jury at the close of the case Mr Courtenay Griffiths, counsel for Goswell, told the jury that their award should "land on the Commissioner's desk with a bang and force him to question the propriety of a man like PC Trigg, whom he had sacked, still policing the streets of London." The all-white jury obviously felt that a message had to be sent to the Commissioner and to the Home Secretary, and by their award they have certainly done that.