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Wrong verdict?

It appears to be a case where the jury got it wrong.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/nov/03/met-police-cleared-racial-abuse

"A Metropolitan police officer was today acquitted of racially
assaulting two teenage boys who had accused him of taking them into
the back of a police van and shouting abuse about their ethnic
backgrounds in front of his colleagues.

Mark Jones, 42, a member of the Met's territorial support group (TSG),
was cleared of subjecting the two 16-year-olds to a physical and
verbal attack after stopping them near Edgware Road, west London.

During the trial, one of the youths accused Jones of placing him in a
neck-hold. Five other TSG officers who were on patrol with Jones, and
were alleged to have covered up the attack, were acquitted of
misfeasance charges.

A black officer who was in the van at the time of the alleged assaults
in June 2007 turned "whistleblower", giving evidence against Jones and
the others during the trial. All seven officers were stationed at the
Paddington Green branch of the TSG.

The conclusion of the trial at Kingston crown court means Jones can be
identified as one of six TSG officers – also from Paddington Greeen –
involved in a separate, "serious, gratuitous and prolonged" attack on
a Muslim man who brought a successful civil case against the Met.

During that case, the high court was told that Jones, a former Royal
Marine, had had more than 30 complaints lodged against him, mostly by
black or Asian men.

Babar Ahmad, 34, a terror suspect, was punched, kicked, stamped on and
strangled during his arrest by officers at his home in December 2003.
In March the Met conceded that its officers had subjected Ahmad to
sustained violence and paid him £60,000 in damages.

The court heard how officers stamped on Ahmad's feet and repeatedly
punched him in the head in his home in Tooting, south London, before
he was forced into the Muslim prayer position, when they shouted:
"Where is your God now? Pray to him."

Ahmad was forced into the back of a police van, where he was again
beaten and punched. Jones was referred to in the civil case as
"Officer X". In court he was identified by Ahmad's lawyers as the man
who placed him in an "extremely dangerous" neck-hold that "could only
have been intended to cause [Ahmad] to experience a state of utter
terror at the thought that he was about to die".

Around this time Ahmad heard an unidentified officer say: "You fucking
cunt, you'll remember this day for the rest of your life, do you
understand me, you fucking bastard?"

The case led to revelations about the history of allegations made
against Jones and the five other officers involved in Ahmad's arrest,
after the judge ordered the Met to disclose unsubstantiated complaints
made against them between 1993 and 2007. The six were the subject of
77 complaints in total, only one of which was substantiated.

When lawyers for Ahmad asked for details of the allegations, the Met
said they had "lost" several large mail sacks containing at least 30
complaints. Lawyers for Ahmad, who analysed the complaints, told the
court they revealed Jones had 31 complaints lodged against him.
Twenty-six were assault allegations, most of which had been lodged by
black or Asian men, and none were substantiated.

They included a complaint from a man detained during a drug search in
2007 who, Ahmad's lawyers told the court, accused Jones of forcing him
into the back of a TSG van, before placing him on his knees, grabbing
his neck and spraying CS gas into his face.

Ahmad's legal team said the details of his attack were "strikingly
similar" to allegations made by teenagers in the 2007 incident in west
London. The jury that acquitted Jones today was not told about his
role in the Ahmad case or made aware of any unsubstantiated complaints
made against him.

During the four-week trial, the court heard how Jones and six
colleagues were on duty on 1 June 2007 when they came across a group
of teenagers on Edgware Road mouthing obscenities. The teenagers were
stopped and searched, and one – Ahmed Hegazy, then 17 – was restrained
after becoming aggressive and taken into a police van.

Two 16-year-old teenagers said they were also taken into the van one
by one and racially abused by Jones. Omar Mohidin claimed Jones
repeatedly made him stand up and sit down while handcuffed, and
reacted aggressively after discovering he was from Kuwait, allegedly
saying: "Iraq, fucking Iraq, I got mates back there getting killed by
fuckers like you."

Basil Khan accused Jones of placing him in a hold at the rear of the
van, which he described as a "headlock" that prevented him from
breathing properly. He said Jones punched him several times on the top
of the head while calling him an "Arab cunt".

Jones and five officers present during the incident denied any officer
had assaulted or shouted racist abuse at the youths. They told the
court some in the group of teenagers had become aggressive when
stopped and had threatened to kill officers.

A seventh officer, PC Amechi Onwugbonu, who lodged an official
complaint hours after returning to the station on the night of the
incident, gave evidence against his colleagues during the trial. He
supported the allegations of racial assault made by the teenagers and
said Jones had later told him the treatment had been justified because
the TSG were "vigilantes".

Jones denied having said that and, under almost a week of
cross-examination, Onwugbonu was presented as an unreliable witness.
He was shown to have given evidence that was in parts inconsistent,
and was forced to admit he had been "wrong" about the seating
arrangement in the van after CCTV footage was shown to the court that
contradicted his accounts.

Defence barristers accused Onwugbonu of harbouring a grudge against
Jones, whom he accused of placing a dead mouse in his locker after he
failed a firearms course. Onwugbonu conceded in court that he and
Jones were "not best buddies".

Jones was cleared of racially aggravated common assault against
Mohidin and Khan. PC Neil Brown, 33, was cleared of misfeasance in
public office, along with Sergeant William Wilson, 52, PC Steven
White, 31, and PC Giles Kitchener, 31. PC Simon Prout, 33, was cleared
of the same charge in October. Brown was earlier found not guilty of
racially aggravated threatening behaviour toward Hegazy.

Colin Reynolds, the solicitor representing the cleared men, said
outside court: "On behalf of all five officers, I am instructed to
express their appreciation to the jury for the way they have clearly,
so carefully and conscientiously considered the evidence over the past
four weeks and returned these verdicts. At the present time, neither
they or I on their behalf have anything more to say.""


the times takes a similar slant but includes a bit more detail

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article6901957.ece

"The jury at Kingston was also not told that Inspector Paul Davis, the
officer who gave Mr Jones a glowing character reference in court, was
the senior officer who supervised the raid at Mr Ahmad’s home and was
said to have witnessed the assaults.

In the Kingston trial the prosecution claimed that Mr Jones subjected
two youths to a physical and verbal attack in June 2007, accusing a
16-year-old Kuwaiti of “robbing people while British soldiers are
getting killed in Iraq�. In a statement, Mr Ahmad’s family said that
they were disappointed with the verdict, and called for Mr Jones to be
tried over the attack on Mr Ahmad.

They said that although the Metropolitan Police had admitted the
brutality of the attack, no officers had been prosecuted, adding:
“This is reflective of a culture that exists in the UK whereby police
officers are able to behave as brutally as they wish with full
knowledge that they will not be held to account by the authorities.�"

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