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Wales: Police officers disciplined

01 November 1999

Five police officers are to be disciplined, following an investigation under the supervision of the Police Complaints Authority (PCA), after the victims of a racist attack were arrested and charged with violent disorder. Marcus Walters and Francisco Borg, were attacked by a racist gang who surrounded their car, smashing the windscreen and attempting to set a pitbull terrier on them, in August 1997. When they attempted to escape they were stopped by police officers who had observed the incident but still sprayed them with CS gas.

Both students were charged with violent disorder although the Crown Prosecution Service dropped the charges before they came to court when it was revealed that the incident, which took place on a busy Cardiff street, was caught on closed-circuit television cameras. Only one of the racist gang was detained at the scene; three men, with links to the National Front, were later convicted for their part in the attack (see Statewatch vol 8 no 3 & 4). Walters and Borg are now taking a civil action against the police.

One police officer has been charged by the PCA with neglect of duty and discreditable conduct and will face disciplinary action which could lead to his dismissal. Another officer will be admonished while the three others will receive "advice". However, Marcus Walters insisted that all five officers should be sacked; "There should be five dismissals from the police force", he asserted. His view was shared by Hilary Brown of the local Citizens' Advice Bureau, who played an important role in getting the charges against the two students dropped, and insisted that: "...the recommendations of charges are totally inadequate. All five officers failed the boys on that day and should have been sacked. Some of them should have been charged with criminal offences..."

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