Cop slapped boy after losing his temper

A police officer has admitted gross misconduct after he dragged an 11-year-old boy on to the floor by his leg, pushed him into a chair and slapped him across the face.

PC Yaqub Yahya was sitting in a cubicle at Hayes Police Station in west London with the child when he became disruptive on 1 October 2019.

PC Yahya has accepted that he grabbed him on or near his neck and pushed him forcefully backwards in to a chair.

He dragged the boy by the leg onto the floor then slapped him across the face with the palm of his hand.

PC Yahya accepts that his actions amounted to gross misconduct and now faces sanction from a disciplinary panel.

On 1 October the boy was in the care of a social worker, having recently been removed from his parents due to neglect, and placed into a care home.

The boy ran away to his parents home but was found by the police who took him to Hayes Police Station at around 6.30pm.

He was placed into a Perspex cubicle at the police station while the social worker waited for other care home staff to help her take him back.

But he became ‘unsettled and disruptive’, said Imogen Egan, on behalf of the Met police.

CCTV shows disruptive behaviour, including that the child standing on a chain, kicking items that were in the cubicle, and climbing up and walking along a countertop.

‘On another occasion he lifted the chair above his head,’ said Ms Egan.

‘PC Yahya, the officer in the case, was asked to join the social worker to supervise.

‘It is common ground that following PC Yahya’s attendance the boy continued to misbehave.’

CCTV shows the boy child standing with his back to the glass door with his arms crossed, then PC Yahya turns around from the corner and grabs him with his right hand.

From then, there is a partially obscured struggle between the police officer and the child, who is repeatedly pushed down onto the chain, and at one point dragged across the floor.

The moment of the slap across the face is mostly obscured in the CCTV footage.

Ms Egan said: ‘Whilst PC Yahya had his back to the boy he heard a kick to cubicle panel.

‘It is this he was reacting to having already told the boy not to kick the panel on previous occasions.

‘This, the appropriate authorities say, caused PC Yahya to lose temper with the boy.

PC Yahya accepts that he grabbed the child on or near the neck and pushed him forcefully backwards into the chair.

He also accepts that he dragged the child by his leg but claims this was unintentional and caused by a stepping back response to being kicked.

There is no dispute that PC Yahya made contact with the child’s face with the palm of his hand, but the officer claims it was a ‘gentle tap’ to move the boy’s face in order to give him instructions to stop resisting.

The footage shows a ‘sharp movement of PC Yahya’s hand consistent with a slap,’ said Ms Egan.

She said that the matters are ‘of the most serious’ and ‘might justify dismissal.’

Giving evidence, the social worker said she found PC Yahya’s reaction to the boy’s behaviour ‘shocking’.

After the incident, she said she asked the station officer whether PC Yahya was allowed to respond in the way that he did.

‘I shouted to him, “is he allowed to do that?” because the police officer slapped him around the face and grabbed him by the throat.

‘The guy behind the desk didn’t say anything,’ she said.

The hearing continues.