Teen in court accused of assault on police officer

Thursday 01 February 2018

The trial continues in Jersey's Youth Court today of a 15-year-old boy accused of assaulting a police officer who was attending an incident at his residential home.

The boy, who can't be named for legal reasons, is pleading not guilty to the charge.

Legal adviser Advocate Darry Robinson told the Court that the alleged incident took place on 21 October 2017 at around 22:20, after two police officers - PCs Andrew Du Feu and Persephone Bell - were called to a residential home. The staff apparently alerted them after the teenager refused to return a laptop.

The Court was shown a video from PC Du Feu's body camera. In it, the boy can apparently be heard swearing and shouting, telling the officers to get out of his room. At one point, the officers and the teen move to a narrow corridor and PC Du Feu is seen with his arm extended towards the teen. Moments later he is heard telling him, "If you touch me again I will arrest you for assault...you are extremely aggressive." The teen is then arrested but protests, saying he hasn't assaulted anyone.

Giving evidence in the trial, PC Du Feu said that all attempts to communicate with the boy, "...only escalated the situation and failed." He said he noted an increasing level of aggression and felt intimidated due to presence and the size of the boy, who is 6'5".

Advocate Ian Jones, defending, asked the Officer: "Did he hit you, did he slap you or did he simply move your hand away? Did he strike you or did he simply use his strength to move your hand away?" The officer replied that the teen either slapped or knocked his hand out of the way, but that the movement was definitely enough to move his hand away.

Advocate Jones put to him that he was the one raising his voice while the boy wasn't shouting. The officer later said: "I was feeling threatened. I couldn’t use my baton in that confined area, I couldn’t use my spray because it would have contaminated the hallway. I was left with tactical communications." He later added that the arrest was his last resort.

The Advocate then said that when the boy came in contact with the officer he was simply trying to leave and go into the dining room. "You must have been in his way. Your arm is in the way that is why he touches you... You say he hit you but conveniently we don’t see the hit on video do we? You were dealing with a boy who is visibly upset. The other PC tells him to go away, he does it and the next thing you do is arrest him. It was an unnecessary reaction." 

PC Bell told the Court that after the boy had given the laptop back, it looked as if he had calmed down, but when he came back, he seemed, "...keen to continue having an argument."

She said the boy raised his fist and mentioned he would use them, adding that he definitely "slapped" PC Du Feu's hand away. She defended her colleague's decision to arrest, saying that the boy had verbally assaulted and threatened staff members and needed to be dealt with there and then. "He has just committed an offence, an arrestable offence. He is dealt with as should be… as would be expected."

The teenager also appeared in Court to give evidence in his defence. He admitted he shouldn't have been swearing but that he was "angry" about the whole situation. 

He said he asked the Police Officer to take his hands off his chest but didn't threaten him. "I’m not trying to be aggressive, I have no intention to do anything to him or to the staff. I am not trying to be intimidating. I'm just trying to get my point across to the staff," he stated.

He said he asked the Police Officer twice to remove his hands off his chest and that he swiped one hand, but not in a forceful manner. He added: "At no point did I swipe his hand a second time. I may have come into contact with him. I'm not a small boy. I'm 6'5". I might have caught him as I turned towards the kitchen, that’s reasonable. But I have in no way, shape, or form swiped him a second time."

Asked why he told staff and Police Officers, "I I will have all six of you", he replied that he didn't know why he said that and that he wouldn't take it as a threat, as "words don’t mean anything." He then said that none of this would have happened if the Officer hadn’t put his hand on his chest.

The trial, which is being heard by Magistrate Bridget Shaw and two members of the Youth Court panel, is expected to conclude today.