Met Police officer fined £1,500 after manhandling mum he thought hadn't paid bus fare
Pc Perry Lathwood wrongly grabbed a mother by her arm for evading bus far in front of her son.
A Metropolitan Police officer has been fined £1,500 for assault after manhandling and wrongly arresting a woman for bus fare evasion in front of her young son.
Pc Perry Lathwood, attached to the Metropolitan Police’s Road Traffic Policing Command, grabbed Jocelyn Agyemang by the arm, causing bruising injuries during the arrest on July 21 last year in Whitehorse Road, Croydon, south London.
Ms Agyemang said the incident was “deeply humiliating and embarrassing” and that Lathwood had a “look of contempt in his eyes” that day, in a victim personal statement read out at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Friday.
Also in the statement, she said the events had a “devastating effect” on her and her young son who have now both lost confidence in the police service.
Deputy Senior District Judge Tan Ikram sentenced the 50-year-old officer, of Normans Bay, East Sussex, saying: “On this occasion in my judgment the officer crossed the line and got it wrong.
“It was not through bad faith.
“He faced a passenger who I have previously described as difficult and challenging but in my judgment he made a momentary error of judgment as it were in the heat of the moment.”
The judge added that he did not find it was “an abuse of power”, but was instead a “mistake”.
The court heard that Lathwood does not accept the conviction and that he will appeal against it.
On top of the fine, he was ordered to pay £200 to the victim in compensation, £650 in costs and a victim surcharge of £600.
He will have to pay the total £2,950 within 56 days.
Ms Agyemang said in her personal statement: “Pc Lathwood manhandled me in circumstances where it was not warranted, but it was the look of contempt in his eyes as he did so that I find hard to move past.
“His comment that I was a ‘daft cow’ was particularly degrading and I believe he intended it to be degrading.”
“I have lost all confidence in the police service,” she added.
The mother also told of how her son was “scared” during the incident, and “now doesn’t trust the police”.
In Lathwood’s defence, the court was told “there was no harm intended (and) he was trying to do his job”.
