Met officer who 'manhandled' woman over bus fare evasion, guilty of assault

A Metropolitan police officer who wrongly arrested a woman for bus fare evasion in front of her young son has been found guilty of assault

PC Perry Lathwood appeared at Westminster Magistrates where the Deputy Senior District Judge Tan Ikram said it was "not necessary to grab the woman's arm, arrest her and handcuff her.

"There were not reasonable grounds to suggest arrest was necessary."

"The officer made an error of judgment and overreacted," he added.

Pc Lathwood, 50, of Norman's Bay, East Sussex, grabbed Jocelyn Agyemang by the arm, causing bruising injuries during the arrest on July 21 last year in Whitehorse Road, Croydon, south London.

Ms Agyemang was dropping her son off at her mother's house before heading to an appointment in Marylebone scheduled for 12.30pm.

Police officers were helping ticket inspectors on a bus in Croydon at the time.

After she and her son disembarked the bus at around 11am, she was asked to show she had paid her fare by a bus inspector.

Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist said:

“This verdict is a huge setback to our ability to rebuild trust with Londoners. We will learn the lessons from this and we apologise to the woman and the wider community who were deeply affected.

“Anyone who has seen the footage of this incident will be upset by how it escalated into a traumatic situation for a mother and her child.

“Despite today’s conviction, we will continue to support the officer and continue to support our workforce, to ensure officers have the confidence to act decisively and make arrests when they believe they have the powers to do so.

“When an officer is convicted of a criminal offence, their conviction will often be considered at an accelerated misconduct hearing as soon as possible after proceedings have finished. In this case we will wait to hear if PC Lathwood will appeal the conviction, and work to fully understand the decision of the court and its implications for policing. We do not intend to consider an accelerated misconduct hearing in this case.

“The nature of this kind of fare evasion operation unnecessarily places officers in potentially challenging interactions with the public. Since this incident happened, we have stopped our involvement in supporting Transport for London fare evasion operations, but we continue our presence on the bus network tackling violent crime.

“The Met will continue to work with communities, to transform our culture and improve how we engage with all Londoners – by embedding our values of empathy, integrity, respect, courage and being accountable across the whole organisation.”

Lathwood, who is attached to the Metropolitan Police's Road Traffic Policing Command, will be sentenced at the same court on June 14.

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