By James Simons-
Four police officers involved in an incident which left a man brain damaged and paralysed have been found guilty of wrongdoing by a misconduct panel.
PCs Hannah Ross, Sanjeev Kalyan and Nicholas Oates were all found guilty of gross misconduct, while Sgt Andrew Withey was guilty of misconduct. The allegations do not relate to the injuries sustained by Mr Cole. The PCs were concluded to have breached standards of honesty in giving false accounts of what transpired in that incidence. All four officers were found by the misconduct panel in Stevenage to have breached standards of duties and responsibilities.
The allegations relate to the officers’ actions surrounding the incident at the nightclub on 6 May 2013, when police were called at about 01:30 GMT. Sports science student Mr Cole, who was 20 at the time had been ejected from the venue and had been refused a refund by door staff, so kept trying to get back in. Mr Cole was “taken to the ground” by PC Ross, PC Oates and PC Kalyan at 01:48. He was then cuffed with “his face down on the ground”. Police officers are known to often use excessive brutal force in
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Three officers lifted him from the ground and he was taken to the police van. PC Ross called an ambulance, and paramedics arrived and commenced CPR on Mr Cole, who was not breathing. Thirty minutes later he was taken to hospital where a broken vertebrae was discovered.
Mark Ley-Morgan, counsel for Bedfordshire Police Professional Standards, accused PC Ross of deliberately writing a short account of what happened that night. The hearing was also told that PC Kalyan tried to “shift responsibility” over what happened to the student. The finding is typical of the bad public perception the public have of the police in providing cover ups for their misconduct and shifting blame were possible.
The panel found that PC Oates had made statements which he knew were not true regarding Mr Cole’s transport to the police van. It said that Sgt Withey failed to make “any inquiry” when PC Ross asked whether Mr Coles should go to hospital or custody and failed to “react” to hearing Mr Cole say his neck hurt.
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The Independent Office for Police Conduct referred its findings of an earlier investigation to the Crown Prosecution Service, which decided that no criminal conduct had occurred.
Picture:BBC News
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