PC Suing Sir Stephen House For £30,000

A police constable who maintains she was hurt playing the role of a criminal during an officer safety training course is suing the head of the Scottish force Sir Stephen House. Debbie Stevenson was "strangling" a colleague on the floor of a gym when she was thrown off during an exercise. She told a court: "It was very powerful. She literally drove up with her hips and I had no control and she pushed me off. " The 26-year-old officer, who is currently on maternity leave, said: "I fell onto the mat and badly hurt my shoulder." Ms Stevenson, who was a Strathclyde police officer at the time based at Blantyre, in Lanarkshire, raised an action against the Chief Constable originally seeking £30,000 compensation. A judge at the Court of Session in Edinburgh was told that an agreement has been reached on the amount of damages to be paid if liability is established. The constable said she had attended an annual refresher course in officer safety training at Rutherglen police station on February 22 in 2012. She said it was to show officers defence techniques, restraints and manoeuvres. "We would observe the instructors carry out the manoeuvre and than go and put it into practise," she said. "They would show the demonstration in slow time and then would show you it in regular time," she added. She said about 20 to 25 techniques would be gone through during such a day. During a ground defence technique she was paired up with another female officer. She said: "Basically I was on top of the female pretending to choke her. " "The female officer was lying on her back on the ground. She had her knees bent up. I had to basically sit on her and pretend I was strangling her," she told the court. "She was the police officer. I was the attacker," she said. The prone officer thrust up "very fast" with her hips and twisted her body to the left hand side. Her arm also went over to get more power to dislodge "the attacker", she said. "She did it very quickly and powerfully. She wasn't touching me with her hands," she added. She was asked what means of control the aggressor in the exercise had and said: "None." She said she did not know what direction she was going to be pushed off in. The constable said there was no manual covering such techniques in the gym hall. She denied that the officer safety training class were told to hook the aggressor's wrist during the manoeuvre. She said: "There was no hooking involved in the demonstration." "It's in the manual but that's not what I was shown that day," she told the court. In the action it is alleged that instructors did not tell those playing the part of officers during the exercise to hook the attacker's wrist and that the attacker had no control over where and how they were displaced. It is contended that as a result of the instructors' failures the constable sustained the injury. Lawyers acting for the Chief Constable of the Police Service of Scotland maintains that the class were instructed in the technique in accordance with the manual. It is said that as a result of the accident the constable suffered pain, discomfort and stiffness in her right shoulder and was absent from work for about five months. It is said: "The pursuer (Ms Stevenson) is anxious about possible assaults/restraint procedures should they be necessary." The hearing before the judge, Lord Boyd of Duncansby, continues.