A shocked father has described the moment eight police officers mistakenly executed a drugs warrant at the home he shares with his young son. Michael Williams and his seven-year-old son Mickey, who is autistic and non-verbal, were at home at 9am on Saturday, January 21, when they heard “three horrendous bangs'' at their door in Cardigan before the door went through.
Having gained entry to the flat at Merchant Close Mr Williams said the officers shouted: “Police!” Then they immediately shouted at Mr Williams to get on the floor. Mr Williams said if it wasn’t for one of the officers having previously met the person the force was actually looking for he thinks he would have been arrested in front of his vulnerable son.
Almost two weeks after the incident Mr Williams said he felt he had no choice but to go public with his experience after what he felt was an “unsatisfactory response” from Dyfed-Powys Police after he complained about the blunder. “I feel like I’ve been fobbed off since I complained. It seems to me from this whole experience that if you've got a police badge you can go around just doing what you like,” he said, who added that he and his son are struggling to recover from the mental impact of the ordeal.
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“My son is hiding under a bed because he is scared of a police force which is supposed to be there to protect him. He is jumping out of his skin every time the door goes. He was making a lot of progress but he's been going backwards since it happened.”
Remembering what happened on the morning of the debacle Mr Williams recalled: “We were on the sofa. I was having a coffee and Mickey was on the iPad to his sister. Suddenly we heard three horrendous bangs at the door. We couldn’t see the commotion but then we saw seven or eight yellow coats rushing past the window shouting out: ‘Police!’ They put the door straight through. I quickly realised it was a drugs search for someone at a different address.
“I was thinking: ‘What the hell is going on?’ My son jumped out of his skin. He can't speak but he was looking at me as if to say: ‘Dad, what the hell is going on?’ In front of him then they’re shouting at me: ‘Get on the floor, get on the floor.’ I was telling them I didn’t know what was going on. I think they knew then they had made a mistake because one of the officers knew the person they were looking for.
“Once they’d realised they told me to go outside away from my son so they could explain what had happened. But I said: ‘Not a chance, my son is autistic, he’s non-verbal, and he’s scared to death.’
“They then just said to me that they’d made a mistake and they’d got the wrong address. Instantly my back went up then because I thought: ‘Hang on, you can’t just say that and leave.’ Two PCSOs stayed with us while they executed the warrant at the correct address.
“I’ve still got a door that doesn’t shut properly. I’ve tried to fix it myself but it’s warped and there is a draft coming through it now because the latch snapped clean off. It’s just one thing after another. I would have thought they might have fixed the door.”
Mr Williams said most frustrating of all was that he has been left without answers as to how the blunder happened. "Why didn't they look at electoral records of who lives at the flat? Is that not what forces do? If not why? Surely there needs to be more checks before police barge their way into your home."
A spokesman for Dyfed-Powys Police said: “We can confirm that the professional standards department has received a complaint and this is currently in the process of being assessed and formally recorded under the Police Reform Act 2002. The professional standards department will be in contact with the complainant to explain how the complaint will be handled and the matter will be allocated to a suitable complaint handler for review. The outcome will be communicated with the complainant who will have a right to review if he is dissatisfied with the outcome."
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