A Metropolitan Police officer tasered a 10-year-old girl twice after threatening her mother with garden shears and hitting her with a hammer, a misconduct hearing has heard.
PC Jonathan Broadhead fired his Taser twice at the girl within “around eight seconds” of entering her home in south-west London on January 21, 2021, after her mother called 999.
He is accused of using force “that was not necessary, reasonable and proportionate” against the girl, also known as Child A, during his Met Police gross misconduct hearing at Palestra House in London.
As of Monday, the four-day hearing was told the girl was still holding the garden shears when Pc Broadhead, who is currently on only limited duties, discharged the Taser and had not listened to his commands to drop them.
Child A had become angry with her mother, Mrs A, after her mobile phone was confiscated over a secure concern about her online activities, the hearing was told.
Giving evidence, Mrs A said she feared the girl’s behavior may have been affected by consuming cannabis edibles, and said she called 999 after she started threatening her with the hammer and scissors.
She claimed her daughter hit her with the hammer before police arrived, but said she was a safe distance away from her when officers arrived and did not want her to be tasered.
Olivia Checa-Dover, a lawyer who took the case to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) watchdog, said: “This case concerns the use of force by PC Broadhead in releasing his Taser twice at a 10 year old girl on the 21st. from January 2021.
“The IOPC alleges that the force used was contrary to the standard of professional conduct in the use of force amounting to gross misconduct.
“The officer accepts the factual elements – i.e. deploying the Taser twice in those circumstances – and so the issue for this panel is not whether this happened, but whether it was consistent (with the) high standards applicable to all police officers or an infringement.”
She said Pc Broadhead and his colleague, Pc Steven Morgan, arrived at the address following Miss A’s call to 999 reporting her daughter was using a hammer and garden shears to ‘hit things’ and threaten her.
The “brief circumstances, including the age of Child A, were relayed to officers over the air” before they arrived, Ms Checa-Dover added.
She said: “What happened on arrival was captured on their body-worn footage. The front door was opened by Mrs. A. In my opinion, she seemed calm on that stage.”
She said: “Child A is seen some distance from the door, further down the corridor” and “appears to be picking up something – now understood to be a pair of scissors – from the floor”.
She added: “The officer ordered her to put them down, which she didn’t do.
“She walked away from those present and walked up the stairs of the house.
“The officer did not speak to Miss A to clarify the current situation or whether there was anyone else in the house; on the contrary, he entered the house and announced that he was a police officer with a Taser and shortly thereafter used his Taser on her twice while she was on the stairs.
Ms Checa-Dover said the incident left Child A with “three barbs in her skin” which had to be removed by paramedics.
“She was kept in hospital overnight and discharged the next day at which time her injuries were still tender,” she said
She added: “The panel must decide whether the use of a Taser on a child of that age and size while she was on the steps of her home was consistent with a breach of the standard of professional conduct requiring all force , was reasonable and necessary. proportionate.”
During her testimony on Monday, Miss A said: “I wanted the police to help me convince (her) to put down the scissors and the hammer… by talking to her.”
She remembered what happened when she opened the door and let officers into the building, she said. “Everything happened very quickly, they came in.
“I remember standing next to them and then slightly behind them. They charged in front of me, there was a lot of shouting ‘Taser, Taser, Taser’.
“I remember my daughter was sitting on a chair in the kitchen with the hammer and scissors and she got up quickly – I feel she was scared – and she ran quickly up the stairs.
“As she ran up the stairs, she was shot with the Taser.”
Ms A said she was “shocked” by “the way things were handled”, adding: “She was told to stop. She didn’t listen… I wouldn’t have called the police if I knew she would have been tasered.
“She seemed to be in pain, she was screaming ‘ouch’.
Asked if the experience influenced whether she would call the police again, she said: “If there is a child involved, yes. Just because of the experience I want to have with my daughter, I wouldn’t want this to happen to another child again.”
Robert Morris, representing Pc Broadhead, said: “Child A has had to deal with an awful lot as a young girl.”
He told Miss A: “Things had gotten really bad that day… and it started because you were worried about your daughter and who she was dealing with online.
“You were concerned about her well-being so you took her cell phone away and she reacted very badly to that… she just became more aggressive.”
He added: “It must have been shocking when she came back after arming herself with those two guns, but it wasn’t like she came back and just sat at the table – she came back and started things on your property to hit.
“She hit the walls and the mirrors and she hit you too, didn’t she, with the hammer?”
Mrs. A said, “She did.”
He added: “She not only waved the hammer but also these scissors at you and threatened you and that scared you?”
Mrs. A replied: “Yes.”
Mr Morris continued: “So when you called 999 it was because you were afraid of what your daughter might do to you? You were scared and couldn’t reason with her?’
Mrs. A said: “Correct.”
On Monday, Pc Morgan said he was concerned for his own safety during the incident and that the 10-year-old, still armed with the scissors, had gained a “positional advantage” after climbing the stairs.
When asked why he used Pc. At no point challenged Broadhead “on the grounds that he used disproportionate force”, he said his colleague’s actions had “safely brought the risky situation to a halt”.
It comes after the Met Pc’s internal investigation initially cleared Broadhead of wrongdoing – but the force referred itself to the IOPC in early 2021 after receiving a complaint, which launched a new review of the case.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) watchdog concluded after an investigation that Pc Broadhead had to answer for serious misconduct.
However, the Met said Pc Broadhead has not faced any criminal charges over the incident following a review by the Crown Prosecution Service.
The hearing continues.