Fedster + 1,307 Posted January 4, 2018 Share Posted January 4, 2018 Officer was found to have used excessive force when arresting man. BTP Headquarters A British Transport Police officer, who was once suspended for drinking five bottles of Vimto with a colleague, has been dismissed for using excessive force. PC Robert Mitchell, 49, was found to have breached the standards of professional behaviour expected of a police officer. A panel ruled that Manchester-based Mitchell used force which was “unnecessary, unreasonable and disproportionate”, when arresting a man at Doncaster railway station on January 14, 2017. In 2009 the BTP Federation criticised the force for suspending Mr Mitchell and colleague Kris Catterall on full pay for 18 months for drinking five bottles of cordial they had found by a railway line instead of reporting the drink as lost or stolen. This incident was entirely separate to the misconduct proceedings last month. He had become the first constable in the UK with dyslexia and ADHD to pass his sergeant exams but was barred from rising to the rank for two years as part of his punishment relating to the soft-drink incident. Mitchell’s 2017 hearing followed an Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) investigation, which began after a member of the public complained about the incident at Doncaster station. An IPCC spokesman said: “Our investigation looked at the contact British Transport Police had with the man detained during the incident. “After studying CCTV of the incident and statements made by independent witnesses and the officers involved, in the IPCC investigator’s opinion, there was evidence of a case to answer for gross misconduct by PC Mitchell in relation to the level of force used on the man. “The report was shared with British Transport Police in June 2017 and they agreed with the investigator’s findings.” View On Police Oracle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hyphen + 693 Posted January 5, 2018 Share Posted January 5, 2018 Had a brief google to see if there was any information on this. It’s so frustrating that reports like this are so vague. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MajorDisaster + 579 Posted January 5, 2018 Share Posted January 5, 2018 Are not IPCC reports public domain material? Genuine question and I'm happy to be educated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hyphen + 693 Posted January 5, 2018 Share Posted January 5, 2018 I have read quite a few on their website in the past so I’m sure they are. They are yet to publish any report or detail in regards to this though. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stewie_griffin + 484 Posted January 5, 2018 Share Posted January 5, 2018 He's always had 'cordial' relations with the IPCC before. In my opinion the matter should have been 'squashed'. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member of Public + 206 Posted January 6, 2018 Share Posted January 6, 2018 I have no opinion on the matter and there's absolutely no chance I'll be forming one based on such little (if any) facts provided in relation to the incident. Vague is an understatement! Hopefully more info will be published. He was clearly in the wrong in the vimto incident but suspending him for 18 months seems somewhat excessive to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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