Wednesday, November 4, 2009 -9:04 AM - There are still a few good Coppers around then, thats good to know!

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news

Police officer cleared of racist

assault had attacked terrorism

suspect before

A police officer cleared of racially abusing and assaulting two teenagers in the back of a police van was involved in the violent arrest of a terrorist suspect which cost his force £60,000 in damages and has 31 other complaints against him, it has emerged.

PC Mark Jones (left) and PC Neil Brown Photo: PA

PC Mark Jones, 42, was part of a team of four officers from Scotland Yard’s Territorial Support Group who were accused of beating the suspect, grabbing him around the neck, pulling his testicles and mocking his Islamic faith.

At one point they allegedly forced Babar Ahmad into a praying position as an officer shouted: "Where is your God now? Pray to him."

A High Court order banning his identification was lifted at the end of a separate criminal trial at Kingston Crown Court, south-west London, where PC Jones was cleared of racially aggravated common assault on two teenagers in west London in June 2007.

He was said to have assaulted a 16-year-old Kuwaiti youth and told him he had been "robbing people while British soldiers are getting killed in Iraq.”

Kingston Crown Court heard the officer was traveling with colleagues from London's high security Paddington Green police station to patrol Lambeth during the evening rush-hour when officers spotted a group of young men allegedly mouthing obscenities at them. When they came to a stop, three teenagers were taken into the van one by one of the officers.

One of the officers, PC Amechi Onwugbonu, gave evidence against PC Jones during the trial, saying he swore at one teenager, Omar Mohidin, who was 16 at the time, before kicking him off the vehicle.

He accused him of walking over another youth, Ahmed Hegazy, when he lay handcuffed on the floor of the vehicle. He said a third teenager, Basil Khan, was brought into the van before he was sworn at, punched, kneed and slapped in the face.

The jury took five hours to clear PC Jones of two charges of racially aggravated common assault against Mohidin and Khan.

Four colleagues, Sergeant William Wilson, 52, and PCs Neil Brown, 33, Steven White, 31, and Giles Kitchener, 31, were found not guilty of misfeasance in public office.

The jury was not told that PC Jones was one of four officers from the Territorial Support Group involved in Mr Ahmad's arrest in December 2003.

Mr Ahmad was held in a neck brace and repeatedly punched, abused and mocked for his religious beliefs during the dawn raid at his home in Tooting, south London.

He later received £60,000 in damages from the Metropolitan Police, following a civil action brought against the force by his family at the High Court.

At that time an order was imposed prohibiting linking PC Jones to Mr Ahmad's arrest and High Court documents referred to him only as "Officer X".

It emerged Jones was the subject of 31 public complaints between July 1993 and May 2007. More than half (16) of the complaints were made by black or Asian men.

The civil action aroused controversy after several officers refused to give evidence into the allegations of abuse.

Retired senior judge Sir Geoffrey Grigson has since been appointed to oversee an independent inquiry into the handling of the case.

Ahmad remains in Long Lartin prison as he appeals against extradition to the United States ion charges that he ran a website for al-Qaeda.

The Territorial Support Group has been mired in controversy following allegations of assault at the G20 protests in London earlier this year.