Cops ‘clubbed drinker – then attacked his friend for trying to take pic’

Picture shows cut to Jake Smith’s headA railway engineer was thrown to the floor by police officers for asking to take their picture when they had battered his friend with a baton, a court heard.

Scott Rooney, 26, wanted to record the identity of PC Jack Wood, 26, after the officer allegedly ran up behind his friend Jake Smith, 26, and hit him three to four times.

But when Mr Rooney tried to take a picture of Wood’s shoulder number, PC Archie Payne, 26, told him ‘I’ll tell you what – we will deal with you’, and grabbed him around the neck, it is claimed.

The incident began when Mr Rooney and Mr Smith asked the officers to help them with a gang of ‘rowdy’ young men who had been kicked out of the World’s Inn, a Wetherspoon’s in South Street Romford for being aggressive.

They believed the gang were waiting outside the pub to get revenge, Hendon Magistrates Court heard.

From his home in Essex, wearing a grey hoodie, Mr Rooney told the court: ‘I came face to face with the people who we were with in the pub.

‘It was a bit blurry but I was suddenly on the floor. I don’t know if I fell or got hit.

‘I stumbled up and saw Jake’s head split open on the floor. I thought he was in the cab with the girls on the way home.

‘He was standing there holding his head and there was blood everywhere. I said who did that or how did that happen?

‘He said he did it and looked in the direction of the police officer.

I said: ‘You can’t do that, that’s wrong.’

‘Then I walked up to the police officer and asked him if I could get a picture of his numbers because I didn’t think it was right that he had hit someone over the head with his baton.

‘He said his number but his collar was in front [of the numbers] so I moved it.’

Mr Rooney appears to move PC Wood’s lapel out of the way to take a picture of it and is told ‘you don’t need to touch him’ by PC Payne, who moves his hand out of the way.

Mr Rooney replies ‘That’s a bit overkill mate’.

Then PC Payne tells him ‘I’ll tell you what – we’ll deal with you’.

In CCTV footage shown to the court the officers grab Mr Rooney’s throat, push him to the wall and lie on top of him.

‘After that the next thing I was on the floor with two officers holding me down,’ Mr Rooney said.

‘They threw me towards the floor. They had their body weight on top of me pushing me against the pavement.

‘As I landed on the floor my right arm was underneath my body getting pressed to the ground and I was unable to move it. I wasn’t there causing trouble.

‘As you can see I’m quite calm, I’m not aggressive in any way and I just thought that was uncalled for.

‘My hands were behind my back I was posing no threat.

‘I had a big bruise on the side of my head, a big red lump and a big bruise.’

He said the officers had no contact with the other men who are said to have initially ‘jumped him’.

PC Wood, based at Romford Police Station, denies one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm against Mr Scott and one count of assault by beating against Mr Rooney.

PC Payne, also based at Romford Police Station, denies one count of common assault against Mr Rooney.

The officer accused of causing grievous bodily harm defended his actions to a witness by saying ‘I was just swinging [my baton] around what do you expect me to do?’ the court heard.

Georgia Marney, 25, befriended the alleged victims during the night out in Hornchurch before they all went to the Worlds Inn pub in Romford.

Wearing a black and white polka-dot blouse, the junior project manager at a law firm gave evidence via video-link from her bedroom in Essex.

‘I was out with a friend, Charlee Randall, and they were with a group of friends and we just started talking.

‘There was a group of younger boys who were just staring at us, then one of them got face to face, nose to nose with my younger sister.

‘Scott said no, you have crossed a line now and you need to get away from us.

‘He was putting himself between my sister and one of the rowdy boys and they were staring, they were very threatening and in our faces.’

After the gang was kicked out, she saw the officers across the road and asked the police for assistance.

‘I spoke to the two officers. I said can you follow him because we think something’s going to happen. We think he is going to get jumped. Myself, my sister and Jake asked.

‘Their response was ”Weell you are adults, what do you want us to do?”

Jake said Scott was going to get jumped. The officers said he’s your friend, you go and look after him.

‘They weren’t interested.

‘I would have thought if officers were alerted to danger they would have gone to investigate or just be present.

‘Even if they had just stood a little further down the road or been present I believe it would have stopped the whole altercation.’

Ms Marney said that after PC Wood allegedly hit Mr Smith ‘there was a lot of blood everywhere, it was falling from his head. The cut was quite prominent.’

‘None of it made any sense. The fact that they were now lying on top of Scott, it didn’t look right. One of them was lying on his neck with his whole body. He couldn’t move his head or his neck.

;The officer was just saying I was just swinging it around (the baton) what do you expect me to do?’

‘He said I’m not having this conversation with you.

‘I think he honestly realised how bad the injury was because he was very defensive. There was so much blood.

‘He couldn’t really justify his actions because he just kept saying what did you expect me to do.

‘He didn’t say anything which would justify why he needed to hit someone over the head.

‘I asked the officers to leave because they were just aggravating the situation and they did.

‘They came back later and said we have reviewed the footage and we are arresting [Scott] for affray.’

The court was shown footage of Ms Marney talking to the officers while Mr Smith was being treated in an ambulance.

One officer can be heard telling her: ‘You are all grown adults you could have turned around and walk the other way.’

When she retorted ‘we told you what was going to happen’, he replied ‘what do you expect us to do?’

‘You are the law,’ she said.

PC Wood, based at Romford Police Station, denies one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm against Mr Scott and one count of assault by beating against Mr Rooney.

PC Payne, also based at Romford Police Station, denies one count of common assault against Mr Rooney.

The trial, which has run over its two-day time slot, will continue at City of London Magistrates’ Court on 14 May.

Both defendants remain on unconditional bail.