A Metropolitan Police officer who “manhandled” and wrongly arrested a woman for bus fare evasion in front of her distraught young son has been fined.
A viral video showed Jocelyn Agyemang becoming increasingly distressed after Pc Perry Lathwood, 50, grabbed her arm, causing bruising.
The incident occurred on 21 July last year in Whitehorse Road in Croydon, south London, as Ms Agyemang was dropping her son off at her mother’s house before heading to an appointment.
Police officers were helping ticket inspectors on a bus in Croydon at the time, and she was asked to show whether she had paid her bus fare by a bus inspector.
Paul Jarvis, prosecuting told the trial Lathwood put a hand on the woman, but she moved away, so he grabbed her arm and arrested her for fare evasion.
A crowd gathered, with people filming the officer and asking him why he had arrested her.
At Westminster Magistrates’ Court, Deputy Senior District Judge Tan Ikram ruled it was “not necessary” for Lathwood to “grab the woman’s arm, arrest her and handcuff her”.
He continued: “She was difficult… but there were not reasonable grounds to suggest arrest was necessary.
“The officer made an error of judgment and overreacted. Handcuffing inflamed the situation even further.”
After Ms Agyemang was arrested, it was confirmed that she had paid her fare and she was de-arrested at the scene.
She told the court she had felt “violated” by the incident, and added: “I just felt a bit degraded because I had not done anything wrong.”
On Friday, Lathwood was fined £1,500 at Westminster Magistrates Court.
Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist said the verdict presented a “huge setback to our ability to rebuild trust with Londoners”.
He continued: “We will learn the lessons from this and we apologise to the woman and the wider community who were deeply affected.
“Anyone who has seen the footage of this incident will be upset by how it escalated into a traumatic situation for a mother and her child.
“Since this incident happened, we have stopped our involvement in supporting Transport for London fare evasion operations, but we continue our presence on the bus network tackling violent crime.”
