Cavendish
A police officer who manhandled a 15-year-old boy has quit his job after he was found guilty of misconduct.
PC Stephen Hudson was 'left a broken man'. He faces bankruptcy and his children had to be removed from school because of local reaction to the incident.
The 43-year-old officer was caught on CCTV bending the teenager's arm behind his back and lifting him off the ground and across the desk after he refused to empty his pockets.
The video shows the 6ft 1in officer slam the 4ft 8in boy on to the counter, causing him to scream in pain.
The policeman then pushed his face against the teenager's ear and shouted: "You are not the big man. You might think you are but you're not."
But it was the officer – a father-of-three - who felt the long arm of the law on his shoulder when HE was arrested after the boy – described in court as a 'local nuisance' – complained of bruising and a nosebleed.
The boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had been arrested for a breach of bail.He had been in the custody suite at Swinton police station in Greater Manchester 'numerous times' before and had previously kicked cell doors and refused to obey the rules, a court heard.
He also faces being sued by the boy's family.
Cavendish
Jurors at his trial at Bolton Crown Court were shown the shocking video of the incident captured on the station's CCTV system, in which the boy could be heard screaming.
PC Hudson was sentenced to nine months in jail, suspended for 18 months.
A jury of four women and eight men took one and a half hours to find him guilty of misconduct in a judicial or public office at an earlier hearing.
Judge Peter Davies told Hudson, of Westhoughton, near Bolton, he had 'besmirched' the reputation of a force which last month lost two female officers in a shooting by inflicting 'deliberate degradation and humiliation' on the teenager.
The judge said: "The overwhelming majority of police officers discharge the faith and trust invested in them by the public with diligence, courage and fortitude.
"A tiny few, however, betray that trust, and I am afraid you have been found to be one of those few."
He said Hudson inflicted unnecessary and excessive force on the boy and it was an exercise in
'deliberate degradation and humiliation'.
He said the conduct of three other officers who were seen laughing in the video 'alarming and lamentable'.
Hudson had denied the charge of misconduct and said he had acted in accordance with his police training, saying: "I was frustrated and a bit angry that he wouldn't comply.
"I was trying to do a legitimate search and he just wasn't doing what he was told.
"I didn't lose my temper. I was just being assertive."
Michael Hayton, defending, said Hudson had quit the police force. He said 'a moment of madness' had left him a 'broken man' with 'bleak prospect' for employment.
The boy's mother said: "That man should never have been called a police officer. He abused my son at the end of the day."