A Metropolitan Police officer convicted of assault for slapping a 16-year-old boy in the face has been given a community order.
PC Sevda Gonen, 33, was found guilty of two counts of assault by beating after slapping the boy multiple times in the face and carrying out an unlawful search of him on November 14, 2023.
She was sentenced at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Friday to a 12-month community order including 150 hours of unpaid work.
District Judge Briony Clarke also ordered her to pay Ksh406,920 in costs, Ksh33,910 in compensation and a Ksh15,462 victim surcharge.
PC Stuart Price, 35, was also found guilty in December of carrying out an unlawful search of the boy, amounting to assault by beating.
He was ordered to pay a fine of Ksh67,820, costs of Ksh271,280, a victim surcharge of Ksh27,128 and compensation of Ksh13,564.
The Metropolitan Police said Gonen had been suspended and Price ‘remains on restricted duties’.
The force added that it would be liaising with the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) regarding misconduct procedures.
Aggressive
The officers were initially called after the boy was reported to have been aggressive at his home address and violent towards a mental health worker who was attempting to perform an assessment, the trial heard.
A camera inside a police vehicle captured a conversation between the officers on their way to the boy’s home, in which Gonen was heard calling him ‘a f****** little sh*t’.
Pc Price said of the boy: ‘He’s a f****** d**khead,’ with Gonen replying: ‘I’ve had enough of him.’
Once at the address, Price, of Gamlingay, Cambridgeshire, offered to drive the boy to hospital in a police van after his mother told officers she was concerned for her son’s welfare.
Lit a cigarette
Footage from within the police vehicle showed that the boy lit a cigarette and started to smoke as the van was driven to the hospital.
During the trial, Gonen said the boy’s smoking made her ‘panic’ as there were ‘huge safety risks’, adding she suffers from asthma and smoking in the vehicle was ‘criminal damage’.
A search of the boy after the officers expressed concern, that he could have something in his pockets was found to be unlawful as he had not been arrested.
Gonen then said she was worried about him spitting, so she put a coat collar by his mouth, the trial heard.
The boy’s eyes lowered and he became less responsive, with Price heard on the footage saying: ‘You all right, mate? We’re just trying to help you, mate.’
Price then said to Gonen: ‘Yeah, he’s hot to touch.’
In footage shown to the court, Gonen appeared to slap the boy’s face several times while holding him by the hair, causing his eyes to flicker.
Discussing her actions, Gonen told the trial: ‘Any time there was a concern for his life, I decided the best course of action was to gently slap him on his cheeks.
‘I was never trying to hurt him, this was solely for his own safety.’
Area Commander Hayley Sewart said Gonen’s slapping of the boy was ‘deeply troubling’ and ‘well below the standards and behaviour we expect from our officer’.
In a statement, Sewart added: ‘We know this incident had a significant impact on the victim and his family, and I would like to apologise to them for the distress and upset caused.
‘Very sadly, what started out as an attempt to get the right medical attention for a teenager in mental health crisis quickly escalated to the events we saw unfold that day.
‘The decision to charge and subsequently convict the officers with assault because the search was deemed to be unlawful, however, raises important questions and we need to now take some time to understand the outcome and carefully consider the possible wider implications for officers and policing in general.’
