A policeman has been given a twelve-month community order after pepper spraying a man who was clinging to the outside of a 15-storey building in Elephant and Castle.
PC Luke Wenham was trying to apprehend the suspect, who was wanted in connection with a series of robberies, last August at Albert Barnes House, on Meadow Road.
PC Wenham, who was found guilty of two counts of common assault, was sentenced at Westminster Magistrates’ Court yesterday (Wednesday, July 26).
He must complete fifteen days of rehabilitation, a three-month curfew and 100 hours of unpaid work. He must also pay £625 in costs and a £114 victim surcharge.
PC Wenham has been suspended as an officer and a misconduct hearing can now take place.
Southwark and Lambeth Commander Seb Adjei-Addoh said PC Wenham’s response was “completely disproportionate to the situation” and “put a member of [the] public at risk of harm”.
Met Police officers forced entry into the man’s flat in Albert Barnes House on August 17, hoping to arrest him on suspicion of robbery.
At the time police said that to evade officers the male climbed out of a window, onto a sixth floor balcony, and refused to get down for over six hours.
The suspect climbed out of a window and started scaling down a drainpipe which ran the length of the building.
PC Wenham then leaned out of a window and pepper sprayed the man who continued to climb down.
Officers then found the suspect on the balcony of another flat. When the man resumed climbing down the outside of the building, PC Wenham pepper sprayed him again.
Elephant and Castle tower climber arrested after six hour stand-off
On February 9, PC Wenham was charged with two counts of common assault.
The suspect was later convicted of eleven counts of robbery and two counts of racially aggravated public order.
Detective Chief Superintendent Seb Adjei-Addoh, local policing commander in Southwark and Lambeth, said: “Officers know that their actions will be held to account and where any use of force is deployed, must always consider whether it was necessary and proportionate to the circumstances.
“It is clear in this case that not only was PC Wenham’s response completely disproportionate to the situation he faced but also, by doing what he did, he put a member of public at risk of harm.”