This is the last article you can read this month
You can read more article this month
You can read more articles this month
Sorry your limit is up for this month
Reset on:
Please help support the Morning Star by subscribing here
A POLICE officer tasered a race relations adviser in the face without prior warning, a misconduct hearing heard today.
Acting Sergeant Claire Boddie fired a stun gun at Judah Adunbi, 65, in what was said to be an “unnecessary, unreasonable or disproportionate” force as he was stepping away from another officer.
Ms Boddie was on duty with PC Darren Weston in the Easton area of Bristol on the morning of January 14 2017 when they saw Mr Adunbi, whom they believed was wanted man Royston McCalla.
Ms Boddie, who was cleared of assault following a criminal trial in May, insists she was acting in accordance with her training and that the force she used on Mr Adunbi was lawful, claiming that she believed he was trying to escape and had punched her colleague.
But George Thomas, presenting the case against Ms Boddie, told an Avon and Somerset Police disciplinary panel that the officer used the X26 Taser on Mr Adunbi when he was moving away from her and had his hands down.
She had previously drawn her Taser and warned Mr Adunbi that she had done so, but did not warn him immediately before discharging the weapon, the hearing was told.
Footage taken from bodycams worn by Ms Boddie and Mr Weston and a mobile phone recording were played at the hearing. The officers repeatedly ask Mr Adunbi to identify himself, to which he replies: “I'm not telling you my name. I have done nothing wrong.”
Mr Thomas said Mr Adunbi, who had previously been stopped and accused of being Mr McCalla, was under “no obligation” to provide officers with his identity, adding that Mr Adunbi was clearly “indignant that he has been stopped.”
The lawyer said there was a “three-second window” between Ms Boddie claiming she had seen Mr Adunbi punch Mr Weston and her discharging the Taser, adding: “She didn’t give him the opportunity by warning him. She didn’t give Mr Adunbi the opportunity to back off.
“There was no hesitation. She removes the Taser in a single movement and raises it. It doesn’t appear she took any care to aim it other than roughly in Mr Adunbi’s direction.”
The hearing continues.
