A Met Police constable who Tasered a 10-year-old girl while she ran away from him in her own home has been cleared of gross misconduct.
PC Jonathan Broadhead fired twice within seconds of entering the property in southwest London on January 21, 2021, after the youngster’s mum had called 999.
His disciplinary hearing was told the girl, referred to as Child A, became angry with her mother and threatened her with a hammer and some garden shears when her phone was confiscated.
Today the panel concluded that PC Broadhead’s use of force was necessary, reasonable and proportionate.
The panel’s chairwoman, Catherine Elliot, said: ‘Having considered the evidence in great detail… the panel has concluded that PC Broadhead’s use of Taser on Child A was necessary, reasonable and proportionate in all the circumstances. The allegations are therefore not proved.’
PC Broadhead told the panel she was sitting in the kitchen when he and a colleague arrived and she ‘almost instantly leaned down and grabbed the shears and got up’.
Giving evidence, he said: ‘I was worried what her intentions were with the shears, why, as soon as she’d seen us, she’d picked the shears up. I was worried what she was going to do with them.’
Body-worn footage played to the panel showed him twice telling the youngster to ‘put it down now’ while stepping into the room.
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He said he pulled out the Taser after she ‘armed herself’ with the shears, claiming she could have inflicted a ‘huge array’ of ‘potentially fatal’ injuries.
The officer disputed the suggestion she was running away from them, instead saying her movement was a ‘purposeful walk into the property away from us’.
He said he tasered her twice because he did not believe the first shot had worked.
‘I felt that, as she reached the bend in the stairs, that was my last possible moment to take the activation of the Taser – had she made the bend the Taser would not have the option any more,’ he said.
‘Moving around the corner gives her a bigger height advantage – with me going towards the bottom of the stairs, she would have been directly above me.’
The panel heard that Child A is about 5ft tall. But Pc Broadhead said: ‘I was worried she could and would assault us.’
PC Broadhead was found not guilty of using force ‘which was not necessary, reasonable and proportionate’ following a gross misconduct hearing at Palestra House in London.
Olivia Checa-Dover, presenting the case for the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), argued that Child A was ‘presenting no immediate threat’.
Speaking after the hearing, IOPC regional director Mel Palmer said: ‘Following our investigation, it was our view that an independent disciplinary panel could – based on the evidence – find that the officer had committed gross misconduct by breaching the standard of professional behaviour for use of force.
‘But only a disciplinary panel – led by an independent legally-qualified chair – can decide if the gross misconduct allegation is proven and the panel has now decided that the officer’s use of force was reasonable and proportionate in the circumstances.
‘We did find the officers provided adequate aftercare to the child by calling paramedics to remove the Taser barbs, performing a partial search and keeping her in handcuffs.
‘This meant that the barbs were not moved, which may have caused her further pain.’
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