A POLICE officer was caught on CCTV dropping a suspect face first and from a height onto the floor of his cell, a court has heard.

PC Paul McVeigh, 48, twice attacked Jack Moore, who he had brought in on suspicion of being drunk and disorderly.

Mr Moore was first dragged from the back of a police van and flipped onto his back by the constable and he was then dragged into a cell and dropped onto the concrete floor where he sustained a 30mm cut to his chin.

The alleged assaults were captured on CCTV at Southwick police station in Sunderland, and will be played to the jury at PC McVeigh's trial.

The court was told that in the course of being arrested, Moore had spat at Mr McVeigh, who has been a Northumbria police officer for 25 years.

Being spat at angered the officer and when he came to take Moore into the police station the assaults followed as a result, said Victoria Lamballe, prosecuting, at Teesside Crown Court.

Miss Lamballe said: "Footage captures this defendant assaulting Jack Moore on two occasions.

"He dragged Jack Moore from the rear of the police vehicle, flipping him over as he did so onto the floor facing upwards.

"He was then dragged across the floor of the van dock area and through the double doors into the custody suite.

"CCTV footage then shows the defendant grabbing Mr Moore and dropping him from a height onto the concrete cell floor where he immediately started bleeding from his face.

"Mr Moore suffered a 30mm laceration to his chin which needed sutures under local anaesthetic."

An IPCC investigation was launched and the CCTV studied.

PC McVeigh told the organisation's investigators the spitting incident was the worst he had endured in 25 years in the force.

He said he had acted "proportionately" in the light of Mr Moore's behaviour and threats he was making Miss Lamballe said Mr Moore first came to the attention of another officer, PC Strawbridge, who earlier that evening was on patrol alone in Washington.

She said: "He was called to an incident in Craddock Close in which Mr Moore was refusing to leave the premises despite the householder insisting he did so.

"PC Strawbridge found Mr Moore to be drunk and abusive. On his own account, Mr Moore later accepted he had been drinking for much of the day and had little recollection of that evening."

The court heard PC Strawbridge decided to arrest Mr Moore for being drunk and disorderly, and called for back up.

"That arrived in the shape of PC McVeigh," said Miss Lamballe.

"There was a struggle during which Mr Moore was handcuffed to the rear.

"Mr Moore spat at PC McVeigh, hitting him in the left eye, before he was put in the van's cage.

"McVeigh later described the spitting as the worst he'd experienced. "Both vehicles, PC Strawbridge's police car and PC McVeigh's police van, went to Southwick police station.

"The van was driven in to the van dock area of the station." Ms Lamballe said the van dock and surrounding area is covered by CCTV, which the prosecution say shows McVeigh assaulting Mr Moore.

Mr McVeigh, from Hebburn, South Tyneside, denies common assault and assault occasioning actual bodily harm on January 26, last year.