Ex-police officer guilty of gross misconduct after punching handcuffed teenager

West Yorkshire Police said Jacob Swallow’s actions were “completely unacceptable” as there was “no justification” for punching the 17-year-old.

Footage from body-worn cameras of his colleagues show he hit the teenager, who was handcuffed in the back of a police van after he had become aggressive during a family party in Keighley in June last year.

The former police constable was convicted of one count of assault by beating at York Magistrates court in March and given a 22-week prison sentence that was suspended for 12 months.

A misconduct panel then ruled he would have been dismissed from the force for gross misconduct if he had not resigned at an earlier date.

At a recent hearing, the panel was told the teenager had been restrained by family members in the garden after he became drunk and abusive at around 3am.

Officers handcuffed him and placed him in a cage in the back of a police van, but he began banging his head against the door.

When two officers attempted to calm him down, he bit one of them and then continued banging his head against the door.

Body-worn camera footage shows PC Swallow then opened the door and punched the boy in the face, causing him to bang the back of his head.

He then said: “That was me and I didn’t use a lot of force, you were smacking your head a lot harder against that than me jabbing you in the face, and I’ve done that for you to stop your behaviour, and it worked hasn’t it.”

An investigation was launched after the teenager, who was left with a bruised face, lodged a complaint.

PC Swallow claimed he had used “a pre-emptive strike” to “shock him and prevent him from harming himself”.

The misconduct panel ruled “there was no justification” for the punch and said “there was no threat at the time to the former officer, his colleagues or others”.

It added “The force used by the former officer was not reasonable, proportionate or necessary.

“The panel felt that the officer should have considered other options at that time rather than deploying the use of excessive force.”

In its ruling, the panel also stated that PC Swallow had ignored suggestions from other officers at the scene, who said they should take the man out of the cage to stop the head banging or used incapacitant spray.

It added: “The conduct was grave and serious. The public should be able to have unquestioning faith in the actions of a police officer and would not expect a police officer to use unnecessary, unreasonable and disproportionate use of force."