An athlete who was pulled over while driving home from training with his partner and baby has clashed with lawyers representing the police officers who stopped him, saying they cannot understand what it is like being a young black person in London.
Ricardo dos Santos, who represents Portugal, was with his partner, the Team GB athlete Bianca Williams, who was in the back with their son, when they were stopped by Met officers who handcuffed the couple, searched them for weapons and drugs and detained them for 45 minutes in July 2020.
Five officers from the territorial support group – Acting Sgt Rachel Simpson, PC Allan Casey, PC Jonathan Clapham, PC Michael Bond and PC Sam Franks – are accused of gross misconduct over the July 2020 stop in Maida Vale, north-west London. They deny all the charges, which include that they were influenced by Dos Santos’s and/or Williams’s race.
At a tribunal in central London on Wednesday, there were heated exchanges between Dos Santos and the officers’ lawyers over whether he bore responsibility for what happened.
Nicholas Yeo, representing Casey, said: “Some people modify their driving and think: ‘Oh, there’s a police car, maybe I should be super careful,’” said Yeo.
In response, Dos Santos said: “As a young black person who’s been stopped by the police on multiple occasions, my experiences of being stopped by the police aren’t the same as ‘some people’ … My experiences are extremely traumatic.”
Yeo also questioned why Dos Santos did not stop immediately when it was clear officers wanted him to but instead drove to his nearby home before doing so, telling the athlete “some people” would act differently.
Dos Santos responded: “You are saying ‘some people’ but … you do not know how it feels to be accused of many things growing up as a young black person in London.” He added that from his perspective it was safest to stop “outside my house with my neighbours around as witnesses”.
Yeo also asked Dos Santos, who denied exceeding the speed limit, if he was “aware of a connection between tinting of windows and cars which are driven by gang members and the like”. The athlete replied: “I have no idea what the connection has to do with me.”
Alisdair Williamson KC, acting for Franks, also drew Dos Santos’s ire when he asked him: “Do you think you bear any responsibility for the way your interactions with the police go?”
Dos Santos said: “I don’t like the manner of the question … It’s not my fault that they see me in the vehicle and decided to pursue the vehicle … I was trying to make my way home.”
Williamson also asked Dos Santos: “You are routinely rude and provocative to police officers, aren’t you?”
The athlete replied: “I am always routinely pulled over by the police.”
He said his experiences in London were “completely different to what my white counterparts would go through”.
The tribunal was told that Dos Santos swore at police and refused to provide his details when requested when he was stopped for not indicating in May 2018 and was also abusive towards officers when stopped in 2022.
Footage was played of Dos Santos walking past a stop and search in August 2020. Dos Santos recognised one of the officers involved as Clapham and told him: “You’re fucked.” When Williamson put it to him that he was “rude and abusive to police officers in public”, he replied: “I have my experience, I hope you never do [have the same].” He said he had been extremely traumatised by the stop the month before, which is the subject of the tribunal.
Dos Santos, who said he was stopped nine times in the first four weeks after he bought a BMW, told Williamson the way he behaved with police was “based on previous experiences. My experiences are different from anyone in this room. You are a middle-aged white man.”
The tribunal continues.
