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Call for probe into police officer punching woman
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Call for probe into police officer punching woman
Lawyers are demanding an independent inquiry after police were filmed on a security camera repeatedly punching a woman while they arrested her, the Guardian newspaper reported yesterday.
The video pictures obtained by the newspaper and broadcast widely on British television showed an officer punching Toni Comer, 20 years of age, five times while apprehending her last year for damaging a car in Sheffield, an offence she has since admitted.
The officer involved, named by the Guardian as police constable Anthony Mulhall, said he was acting in self-defence and South Yorkshire Police said they were satisfied by the way the arrested was handled.
The closed circuit TV footage shows Comer wrestling with the officer outside a nightclub from which she had been ejected. Other officers then come to assist.
?She now began to kick, spit and made attempts to bite me ... she tried to grab handfuls of my genitals and knee and kick me in the same place,? Mulhall said in a statement after the arrest according to the Guardian. ?At this point I struck her as hard as I was physically able with my right fist in an attempt to subdue her. There was no effect so I did it twice more.?
He said he had hit her on the arm in order to allow her to be handcuffed. Comer said she had suffered an epileptic fit and appears to be limp as she is taken to a police van, the Guardian said. Her lawyers are calling for the Independent Police Complaints Commission to investigate the case. ?I was shocked when I first saw the film. I didn?t think they?d do something like that,? Comer told the paper. South Yorkshire Police said they would examine any complaint but added they were angry at suggestions in a BBC Newsnight report, which they said accused them of racism. Comer is black.
?Suffice to say the force is outraged at the report itself and the possible suggestion this may be linked to any racist incident,? a police spokesman said. ?Until we?ve had further consideration of this there will be no further comment.?
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