Met police officer fined for assault after abusing woman on bus

A Metropolitan Police officer has been fined £1,500 for assault after he abused and wrongfully arrested a woman for evading bus fares in front of her young son.

PC Perry Lathwood of the Metropolitan Police’s Road Traffic Policing Command grabbed Jocelyn Agyemang by the arm and caused bruising during his arrest on Whitehorse Road, Croydon, south London, on July 21 last year.

In a victim’s personal statement read out at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Friday, Ms Agyemang said the incident was “deeply humiliating and embarrassing” and that Lathwood had “a look of contempt in his eyes” that day.

In her statement, she also said the events had had a “devastating effect” on her and her young son and that both had now lost trust in the police.

Sentencing the 50-year-old police officer from Normans Bay in East Sussex, Deputy Chief District Judge Tan Ikram said: “In my opinion, this time the police officer crossed the line and made a mistake.”

“It was not done with malicious intent.

“He was faced with a passenger who I have previously described as difficult and challenging, but in my opinion he made a brief error of judgement in the heat of the moment, so to speak.”

The judge added that in his view it was not an “abuse of power” but rather a “mistake”.

The court heard that Lathwood does not accept the conviction and will appeal against it.

In addition to the fine, he was ordered to pay the victim £200 compensation, £650 costs and £600 victim compensation.

He must pay the total amount of £2,950 within 56 days.

In her personal statement, Ms Agyemang said: “PC Lathwood treated me roughly under unjustified circumstances but it was the look of contempt in his eyes that I find difficult to overcome.

“His comment that I was a ‘stupid cow’ was particularly demeaning and I think he was trying to be demeaning.”

“I have lost all trust in the police,” she added.

The mother also reported that her son was “scared” during the incident and “no longer trusts the police.”

In Lathwood’s defence, the court was told that “there was no malicious intent and he was only trying to do his job”.

Ms Agyemang took her son to her mother’s house before leaving for a 12.30pm appointment in Marylebone in July last year.

At the time, police officers were assisting ticket inspectors on a bus in Croydon.

After she and her son got off the bus at around 11 a.m., a bus inspector asked her to show the fare she had paid.

Lathwood had previously claimed he acted to protect Ms Agyemang’s child, but in the final judgment this was described as “absurd”. The judge found the officer’s testimony was “not credible”.

Prosecutor Paul Jarvis said at the trial that Lathwood touched the woman with his hand, but she moved away, so he grabbed her by the arm and arrested her for fare evasion.

A crowd gathered, filming the police officer and asking him why he had arrested them.

Mr Jarvis said Lathwood continued to detain her, demanding that she show her card and handcuffing her.

Another officer took the Oyster card from her hand and walked away to see if she had paid.

It was confirmed that Ms Agyemang had paid her fare and she was released at the scene of the accident.

Following Lathwood’s conviction last month, Deputy Chief Constable Matt Twist said the verdict represented “a huge setback to our ability to restore the trust of Londoners”.