Officer tells jury baton strikes were accidental (From The Northern Echo)

Officer tells jury baton strikes were accidental

7:56am Friday 10th July 2009 in

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A POLICE officer who is alleged to have brutally beaten a suspect with his baton during an arrest has told a jury that he used only necessary force to detain him.

Simon Atkins said he never deliberately used the extendable metal stick on Lee Scott, but that he accidentally caught him twice with it when he punched him in the face.

Cleveland Police officer PC Atkins said he believed the blows he delivered were necessary because Mr Scott tried to hit him four times.

Mr Scott was left with five missing teeth and gaping head wounds after the confrontation in Hemlington, Middlesbrough, in September 2007.

It is alleged by the prosecution that the 33-year-old tried to give himself up after he was chased across a field by PC Atkins, but was set upon in an “unjustifiable” way.

The officer, a married father- of-one who has been in the force for six years, told Teesside Crown Court that he was acting in self-defence when he punched Mr Scott.

He said: “If there was any other option, I would have used it, but, unfortunately, there was no option but to strike the suspect.

“At no point was a specific baton-strike undertaken by myself. Every blow was with my fist, and if the baton then struck Mr Scott because it was in my hand, it was unintentional.”

The officer and colleague PC Natalie Derbyshire had originally been called to the home of Mr Scott’s estranged wife, Michelle, who reported a disturbance.

As they travelled to the scene in Coulby Newham, they saw banned driver Mr Scott in a white van and followed him until he ditched it and ran off.

People living close to where the 36-year-old officer caught Mr Scott said PC Atkins repeatedly struck him, then swore at them when they complained.

During cross-examination from Tom Moran, prosecuting, he denied speaking to anyone after the incident and disputed telling his colleagues he had “sticked” Mr Scott.

He refuted a suggestion that he had concocted the threat of violence to excuse “a completely unjustifiable level of force” and insisted Mr Scott never tried to give himself up.

PC Atkins, of Hesleden Avenue, Middlesbrough, denies a charge of unlawful wounding.

The case continues.