Two former Metropolitan police officers sacked over a stop and search involving the British athlete Bianca Williams have been handed back their jobs after winning an appeal.
PCs Jonathan Clapham and Sam Franks were dismissed in October last year after being found by a disciplinary tribunal to have lied about smelling cannabis after pulling over Williams and her fellow Olympic sprinter Ricardo Dos Santos in Maida Vale, west London.
The athletes had been driving back from training in July 2020 – with their three-year-old son, Zuri, in the back seat of their Mercedes – when they were followed by police who claimed the car could be linked to gang activity.
Last year’s disciplinary tribunal found that Clapham and Franks had been “untruthful”, there was no objective basis for believing Dos Santos had cannabis in his car or on his person, and that their conduct amounted to gross misconduct.
However, on Friday, the police appeals tribunal overturned that decision, describing it as “irrational” and “inconsistent” – and said they should receive full back pay.
The appeals tribunal chair, Damien Moore, said the officers were “dedicated, hard-working and much respected officers” whose reputations had been “ruined” by the original findings. “Both officers did not lie,” said Moore. “Both officers will now be reinstated to the Met police. They should receive back pay.”
The Independent Office for Police Conduct, which brought the cases against the officers, said it noted the outcome and would await the written decision.
Three other officers were acquitted of gross misconduct in October last year over the incident. At Thursday’s hearing, Hugh Davies, representing Clapham, told the police appeals tribunal that another officer at the scene had smelled cannabis but was not found to have lied.
Davies said the original decision had been “inherently unreasonable” and officers had “every reason to suspect criminality” when they pulled Dos Santos over.
Williams and Dos Santos were detained for 45 minutes, handcuffed and searched on suspicion of possessing drugs and weapons.
Officers’ handling of the incident came under scrutiny after their coach, Linford Christie, accused the Met of institutional racism and posted footage of the couple being forced out of the car as a visibly distressed Williams said repeatedly: “My son is in the car.”
The Met police apologised days after the incident but has always denied it was a result of institutional racism. Dos Santos, who is regularly drug tested because of his occupation, said after the original decision that he had been stopped by police more than 20 times since the age of 13 and repeated the allegation of institutional racism.
The disciplinary panel last year found as unproven claims that race played a part in their treatment.
After Franks and Clapham’s dismissal, an online appeal for them raised more than £150,000, some reportedly from serving officers. An email was sent to every member of one of the 12 basic command units – into which the Met police is divided – in which staff were urged to donate.
Rick Prior, chair of the Metropolitan Police Federation, said the officers had been sacked for doing their job, adding: “Justice has been served.” He accused the IOPC of “a political witch-hunt against two hard-working police officers”. He added: “Londoners would want officers to act when they saw such behaviour on our roads … and it remains astonishing that officers lost their jobs for doing their job.”
Source: www.theguardian.com