A POLICE officer who punched and kicked a teenage boy while restraining him will keep his job despite being found guilty of misconduct.

Sussex Police constable Daniel Patterson pushed on the schoolboy’s pressure point behind his ear five times while he and three other officers arrested him.

A misconduct hearing was told that the boy was lying face down on the floor with his arms underneath his body, so he posed a minimal threat.

Mr Patterson was cleared of using unnecessary force when he punched the boy in the face and “kicked” him while the teenager resisted arrest for breach of the peace.

When the boy broke free, Mr Patterson said he had had to “step in” and use “brute force” to regain control, claiming that the punch was a “distraction technique.”

He was found guilty of misconduct, but not gross misconduct, and received a written warning, Sussex Police said.