Three Met police officers plead not guilty to assaulting teenager in Tooting

Three Metropolitan Police officers have denied assaulting a 17-year-old boy.

Sergeant Dave Mattock, 36, Acting Sergeant Callum Ferguson, 26, and Pc Jack Beadle, 26, appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Monday.

The officers, from the force’s South West Command Unit, spoke to confirm their names and dates of birth before pleading not guilty to a charge of assault by beating on 2 April.

The trio boarded a bus the suspect was on in Tooting, south London, before he ran off, the court heard.

The teenager was allegedly pushed towards a parked car before being restrained and arrested on suspicion of assaulting an emergency worker.

The officers were charged following an investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) into an allegation that they used excessive force.

The police watchdog said it investigated following a complaint about officers who stopped a bus and removed the youth from the vehicle.

District Judge John Zani released them on unconditional bail ahead of a two-day trial at the same court on 13 February next year.

The IOPC said last week: “Our investigation followed a referral by the MPS in April after it received a complaint that excessive force was used by the officers.

“In September we passed a file of evidence to the Crown Prosecution Service, which authorised the charges contrary to Section 39 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988.”

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