Police officer fined for assault after wrongly arresting woman over bus ticket

A Metropolitan Police officer has been fined £1,500 for assaulting a woman he wrongly arrested for a bus ticket in front of her young son.

PC Perry Lathwood, 50, manhandled Jocelyn Agyemang, leaving her with bruises after grabbing her arm on July 21 last year in Croydon, south London.

The victim, who had been wrongfully arrested for fare evasion, claimed the officer called her a “mad cow”.

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

She went on to say she had lost faith in the police force as the arrest had a “devastating effect” on her and her son, who witnessed the scene.

“Error in Judgment”

Senior Deputy District Judge Tan Ikram sentenced the officer, from East Sussex, saying: “On this occasion, in my view, the officer crossed the line and made a mistake.”

But the judge said, rather than as a result of “bad faith” or “an abuse of power”, his actions were a “momentary error of judgement” while dealing with a “difficult and challenging” passenger.

Mrs Agyemang was dropping her son off at his mother’s house before heading to a meeting in Marylebone scheduled for 12.30pm last July.

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 11am, she was asked to show that she had paid for her ticket by a bus inspector.

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Prosecutor Paul Jarvis said Lathwood grabbed the woman but she pulled away, so he then grabbed her arm and arrested her for eluding.

A crowd gathered, people filming the officer and asking him why he arrested her.

Mr Jarvis said Lathwood continued to hold her, demanding she swipe her card. He also handcuffed her.

Another officer took his Oyster card from his hand and went with him to see if he had paid.

It was confirmed that Ms Agyemang paid her fare and was released on the spot.

Ms Agyemang said in her personal statement: “PC Lathwood manipulated me in circumstances where it was not justified but there was a look of contempt in his eyes so it is hard for me to get past him.

“His comment that I was a ‘mad cow’ was particularly degrading and I think he intended it to be degrading.”

Following the officer’s sentencing last month, Met Police Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist said the verdict represented a “huge setback in our ability to rebuild trust in Londoners”.

Lathwood, who must also pay £200 victim compensation, £650 costs and a £600 victim surcharge, will appeal against his conviction.

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