Monday 21 October 2013

Two Merseyside Matrix Police Officers sacked after unlawful use of taser.

Two Merseyside Police Officers were sacked today for gross misconduct after the IPCC upheld a complaint by Kyle Wardle, a man who was wrongly arrested and subjected to five unjustified rounds of Taser in December 2009.

WPC Joanne Kelly, one of the officers sacked, was the female Officer involved in my unlawful arrest in May 2009. My complaint against her and the other officers, Sgt Charlie Tennant, PC Mark Gibbs and PC Jason Jones was dismissed by Merseyside Police's professional standards division, but upheld by the Independent Police Complaints Commission. I subsequently accepted an out of court settlement after issuing legal proceedings against Merseyside Police.

Kyle McArdle was detained by officers from Merseyside Police when he was spotted urinating in an alley off Elliot Street in Liverpool city centre.

Kyle was put into the back of a police van and hit with five rounds of Taser, including three times in 'drive-stun' mode where the weapon was pressed against his chest, leg and upper abdomen. The arresting officers said he was 'violent' and Taser was needed to restrain him.

Taser barbs were also removed from Mr McArdle’s chest in contravention of Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) guidelines that say they should only be removed by a medical professional unless there is an ‘operational necessity’. The officer who took them out said he feared Mr McArdle would remove them himself and use them as weapons.

Mr McArdle, 26, was charged with assaulting two of the officers but was found not guilty at a magistrates’ court hearing.

He then made a number of complaints, including that multiple use of Taser in the confined space of a police vanwas disproportionate.

After investigating the complaints Merseyside recommended officers receive management advice about their 'lawful' use of powers.

Unhappy that the force had not properly addressed his complaint about the extent of force used against him, Mr McArdle appealed to the IPCC. The appeal was upheld and the IPCC recommended Merseyside re-investigate, this time considering if the use of Taser would be justified had the victim been lawfully arrested.

Merseyside then asked its lead Taser instructor to examine the case. The officer concluded the force used was "necessary, proportionate, reasonable and in line with the officers’ training and Acpo Association of Chief Police Officers) guidance”.

A second appeal, which was also upheld, was lodged with the IPCC who found that the officers should have been served with notices for gross misconduct and interviewed under caution. The IPCC also said that insufficient weight was given to Mr McArdle’s version of events and the evidence that supported his account. That evidence included CCTV footage that did not support the officers’ claims that he had been violent and needed to be restrained.

The IPCC also said it was concerned that Merseyside’s lead Taser instructor was uncritical of the officers’ use of the weapon and relied solely on their version of events.

Following the second upheld appeal Merseyside police held a misconduct hearing for two of the officers that began on 30 September. It ended with the dismissal of PCs Simon Jones and Joanne Kelly after gross misconduct was proven. A third officer, Sergeant Charlie Tennant, had already been dismissed from the force for an unrelated matter.

IPCC Commissioner James Dipple-Johnstone said: "To enjoy public confidence it is important police officers only use force, including Taser, as a last resort; and then only at the minimum level necessary for the threat they actually face. The IPCC recognises that there is public concern over the considerable increase in Taser use – not only in the number of officers using it but also in circumstances where it would not have been used previously - and the significant rise in complaints that has accompanied that. Incidents such as this do nothing to alleviate that public concern.

"While we welcome the robust action eventually taken by the force in response to our appeal findings it is a concern that Merseyside’s lead Taser instructor lacked objectivity and presented as fact the officers’ version of events without challenge. It is important that when things do go wrong complaints are addressed thoroughly and responded to robustly. We hope the force will take on board learning from these events for the future.”

32 comments:

  1. Well done Kyle for persevering, and getting justice.

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    1. Not being able to hold your booze is a criminal offence now is it Mr Police Officer? lol

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    2. Lets just work this out Linskills for the court case Broudie Jackson and Cantor for the civil case , Barrister for the civil case , 3 MPSD internal enquiries 3 Ipcc enquires a five figure settlment out of court 1 gross misconduct interview 1 disiplinary enquiry over 3 days , so you cretin Kyle McArdle wasn't a loser like you was he it didn't cost him a penny the losers are the tax payers because it took so long for the police to investigate themselves
      themselves.

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    3. A 'loser like me"

      What can you possibly mean? You obviously don't know anything about me ;-)

      Why are you anonymous Officer? What do you have to hide? :-)

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  2. He was denied a phone call , his family only found out he was in custody when they rang the police to report him missing the next day .

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    1. That's disgusting!

      Against PACE they refused to allow me to speak to anyone by phone, but did inform my family that I had been kidnapped by Jo Kelly, Charlie and mates.

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    2. I called them to tell them he was at Joe`s Sauna getting a rubdown, but they wouldn`t believe me.

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  3. Can't help but smile , she's gonna have lots of time to take that dog for walks.

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    1. Probably, now she`s 25 grand richer, which is more than you`ll get on the dole queue

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    2. That was between the two of them though. I got a lot more than that haha ;-)

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  4. well done kyle, justice after 4 long years. nan will be looking down on you and would be made up you were in her favourite paper the echo. there was a lot more to this story a lot left out what is printed is bad enough, we all love you and knew from the moment it happened that you were innocent. and to any one else out there still fighting for justice don't give up you will get there in the end.

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    1. nan probably is more interested in catching up on crossroads than following a loser like Kyle, wherever she ended up. do they get crossroads in the afterlife, what about brookside

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    2. Crossroads??

      Do you live in the past, the 70's haha typical

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  5. It made my day when I heard the news Jo Kelly had been sacked. It's only what she deserved.

    But in my view this is simply not punishment enough for what she did to Kyle, me and I'm sure plenty of others who may have been too scared of her and her mates to come forward.

    If the CPS do not press charges against her, Charlie and others, then we may have to take out a private prosecution against them ;-)

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  6. It would make my day to see them standing in the dock, when I think about how scared our kyle was of ending up in prison because of their lies it makes me want to weep. and the fair joanne had a mouth like a docker and verbally abused him. the 4 times he had to appear in the magistrates court and we had to watch those 4 animals laughing and joking walking passed us was a nightmare .

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  7. I haven't seen them since that day in May 2009, but if I see them again I can guarantee it will be us that are doing the laughing. They picked on the wrong ones when they decided to go for us, and boy do they know that now! :-)

    I won't rest until they are punished by imprisonment for what they did to me and I hope Kyle will join me (I have spoke to him) in seeking further justice.

    By the way the can be contacted on their respective facebook pages (below) I already have sent messages to both ;-)

    www.facebook.com/jo.kelly.756
    www.facebook.com/charlie.tennant

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    1. Have another turd burger... they got reinstated. Maybe if you didn`t get drunk so much and actually bothered turning up at your AA meetings once in a while you wouldn`t have got arrested in the first place.

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    2. A bit libelous that Mr Anonymous, best be careful what you say ;-)

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  8. I hope that they face a court of law, and have to abide by their own code of ethics which they never upheld. why is it that little people who get a bit of power misuse it and don't use it for the good.

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    1. blah blah blah the usual neo liberal BS

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    2. blah blah blah usual Police Officer bs

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  9. Not content with assaulting and verbally abusing him, THEY then wanted to do HIM for assaulting THEM therefore tarnishing a young mans unblemished reputation and record. Well he has a guardian angel watching over him and she would have said " He who laughs last laughs longest".

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    1. errrr hello..... they retired on health grounds, as Joanne is sick in the head.

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  10. well done for sticking it out lets hope they receive a prison sentence...wont be laughing then will they.
    There are many bad apples in the force...would have loved to have watched them in the dock just to see how they felt...well done everyone.all the way from LONDON.

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    1. hey turdey they got reinstated

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    2. She's still a nasty piece of work, believe me I know, she should never have been a Police Officer, and I am glad that she no longer is.

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  11. Cheers Kat!

    I'd say there's more bad apples now than there are good.

    I'm not sure whether Joanne Kelly has been charged with an offence, but I have asked Merseyside Police, I'm awaiting a response.

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    1. Spastic?

      Well aren't you a nice fellow, not.

      Using offensive language like that it would not surprise me if you were one of Joanne's colleagues. Mind you, if you were, you would know that she is no longer a Police officer. So what YOU blabbering about?

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  12. I didn't lose at all ;-) I got justice.

    and Joanne is no longer a Police Officer, and rightly so.

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  13. Hey Mr Pathetic little prick who has got a lower IQ than my dog , they weren't reinstated for long where they and not back in the Elite Matrix unit but in some crummy station then both retired on medical grounds a few months later isn't that strange to say the least .
    Maybe when you next go to the John to vacate your bowels take a dictionary you may find a word more discriptive than turd , its got to better than the shit coming out of your mouth /posts
    exPC ?

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  14. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  15. Search for DUI lawyers who have a decent record of effectively guarded cases.
    FrouharLaw

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