Police officers deny assault claims

A police officer and member of the Tower Hamlets anti-gang unit has denied attacking a teenager while his three colleagues stood by and watched. PC Paul Hyland, 33, is accused of punching the 14-year-old in the face while trying to wrestle him out of his bedroom at a flat in Poplar, east London. He and fellow PCs Frances Smythe, 25, William Wright, 26, Ian Evans, 25, were trying to arrest the boy on suspicion of robbery, but he became violent…