by Campbell Thomas
A POLICE officer’s career is in ruins after he attacked a prisoner in his cell, leaving him with a serious head injury.
PC Gary Dolan, 48, was captured on CCTV grappling with Stephen Young, who had put his hands through the hatch on his cell door.
The footage showed the door being opened suddenly by Dolan, followed by Mr Young flying backwards and striking his head on the floor. He lay moaning while Dolan and three colleagues walked away from the cell at Kilmarnock police office in Ayrshire.
The prisoner was later rushed to hospital and given six stitches to a deep gash in his scalp.
Sheriff Brian Murphy found Dolan guilty of assaulting and injuring Mr Young in April 2015 and fined him £400.
The trial at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court was told by PC Mark Scott, an operational safety trainer, that he had re-qualified Dolan in the use of defensive techniques just days before the incident. Regulations stated any use of force had to be legal, proportionate and reasonable for the circumstances.
PC Scott said the “double-handed fend-off” was used to stop a person’s forward momentum and was not “merely a push”.
CCTV footage from the cells showed Mr Young, who had been detained drunk at hospital and was on constant observations, kicking and punching his cell door.
Dolan arrived and shouted: “What do you want? Just get your heid down and get some sleep. You’ve got court in the morning. You’re just winding everybody up.”
Mr Young showed his arms but Dolan yelled: “You don’t need to go to the doctor. Those are old injuries. You’ve already been seen by the doctor.”
PC Scott said the later apparent twisting of Mr Young’s arm through the hatch by Dolan was not part of training and did not allow the prisoner to put his arm back inside.
“The prisoner is within a locked cell at the moment,” PC Scott added. “I don’t see the need to open the cell door.” Mr Young was not in a “fighting pose” and could easily have fallen over if pushed.
James Bonner, an investigator for the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner, said officers who witnessed the attack gave conflicting statements.
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