A police officer involved in the alleged beating of a man in Newport is no longer on duty, Gwent Police has confirmed.
Video footage posted online earlier this week showed an officer from Gwent Police appearing to strike a man with a truncheon before pushing him against a wooden pallet and restraining him.
After hitting social media, the video that went viral, generating millions of views, saw a clearly overzealous cop smash the man with his truncheon before smashing him into a large wooden pallet with brute force.
Now campaigners against police brutality are up in arms, one who himself has suffered a beating from a Welsh police officer for no reason and was never charged came forward to say:
“Welsh coppers are always at it, and it’s a shame all incidents are not caught on video; when I got battered by PC Hassle 469 from the Swansea force, the cops made sure the CCTV footage went missing from the Principality stadium.
My crime was that after coming out of the toilet during a match, I walked into the wrong hospitality box; PC Hassle battered me with his truncheon smashing me to the floor before stamping on my back before throwing me headfirst down an escalator.
“I was locked up for the night because, at the station, I wanted to make a complaint against the arresting officer.
“When I was finally released, I went to my local police station with evidence of boot marks on my jacket as well as photos of severe bruising.
” They pleaded for a deal; If I dropped my charges, they would take no action against me; I wasn’t going to accept that at first until my solicitor found out they had scrubbed all CCTV footage.
“The South Wales Police think they are a law to themselves – hopefully, this cop gets the book thrown at him as he was caught on film,” he said.
The incident took place on July 9 and was subsequently referred to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) by Gwent Police.
