A black teenager who was punched in the groin and sprayed in the face with an incapacitant was not assaulted by three Metropolitan Police officers, a judge has ruled.
Sergeant Dave Mattock, 37, and acting Sergeant Callum Ferguson, 26, from the force’s South West Command Unit, were cleared of a single charge of assault by beating at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, following a two-day trial.
Their colleague Pc Jack Beadle, 26, was cleared of the same offence on Monday.
It was alleged they assaulted 18-year-old Gabriel Silvera, who was 17 at the time, in Tooting, south London, in the early hours of April 2, 2022.
District Judge Tan Ikram said the officers were on patrol in an unmarked police car, in plain clothes, “responding to the threat of knife crime and violence on the streets of London” on the night of the incident.
Sgt Ferguson told the court he saw two people walk past the vehicle, one wearing a balaclava, the other with their hood up.
He said they met two friends at a bus stop and boarded a bus within seconds, arousing his suspicions he might be “observing a robbery team”.
The court heard that the officers “noticed a disturbance” at the back of the top deck of the same bus, so they stopped it and escorted the four young people off.
Both sides accepted that three of the young people were compliant, but the court saw footage of how Mr Silvera ran away before he was caught and taken to the ground by Ferguson.
While on the floor, the court heard that Mr Silvera was holding Sgt Ferguson’s jumper and ripped it, while the officer punched him three times in the “groin and abdomen area”.
On Monday, Mr Silvera said he felt “targeted” by the officers and that “they had me in some George Floyd position” while restraining him.
He could be heard shouting for help in body-worn footage played to the court.
Sgt Ferguson claimed he feared “immediate violence” during this struggle and for his colleague’s safety, adding: “I still at this stage believed he may have been in possession of a weapon.”
Sgt Mattock helped restrain and handcuff the teenager while Pc Beadle later sprayed him with Pava, before he was bundled into a police van.
Mr Silvera was arrested for assaulting Sgt Ferguson, but he subsequently alleged he had been assaulted during the arrest.
During a September interview with the Independent Office for Police Conduct, played during the trial, Mr Silvera said: “He (Ferguson) punched me three times quickly, all in my balls area. The whole time he was making growling noises. He was making some strange sounds.”
The judge said “Proactive policing means watching out for suspicious behaviour when things might not have happened yet”.
He later added: “Mr Ferguson is a much bigger man than Mr Silvera and throughout his dealing, I think it can reasonably said that he was heavy-handed but in my judgment heavy-handed is not the same as being persuaded that heavy force was used.
“There is a spectrum of force which still remains within the parameters of lawful and I am not persuaded that taking him to the fence and, in fact, seeing Mr Ferguson’s response to being goaded at that stage, doesn’t suggest to me he lost control or was angry, far from it, he remained restrained in the face of provocation from Mr Silvera.
“Throughout his interactions Mr Ferguson, in my judgment, has not been proven to have used unlawful force and therefore I also find him not guilty.”
He earlier said: “At no stage did Mr Mattock use any unlawful force against Mr Silvera and therefore I find him not guilty.”
