Met the officer who slapped the boy accused of assault

A Metropolitan Police officer who slapped a 16-year-old boy suffering from mental health problems “several times in the face” while taking him to hospital has been found guilty of assault.

PC Sevda Gonen, 33, had denied the charge and claimed she was concerned for the boy’s life during the trip on 13 November 2023 – while the prosecution argued “she let her despair get the better of her”. .

Westminster Magistrates’ Court also found Gonen and another Met PC, Stuart Price, 35, guilty of unlawful search, amounting to assault.

He will be sentenced on January 24.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said it was in discussions with the Met regarding disciplinary proceedings.

Police were initially called after it was reported that the boy was being aggressive at his home address and was behaving violently towards a mental health worker who was attempting to carry out an assessment.

Prosecutor Lyndon Harris said Gonen, of Leytonstone, east London, “had created the impression that he was wasting their time by pretending to have some kind of mental illness”.

Price, of Gamlingay, Cambridgeshire, offered to take the boy to hospital in a police vehicle after his mother told officers she was concerned for her son’s welfare.

The boy then got into the police vehicle but left his foot outside, preventing the back door from closing, the court heard.

In footage from inside the police vehicle, the boy lit a cigarette and started smoking.

The court heard that, after a struggle, the boy was handcuffed but not arrested and searched.

Prosecutors said the search was illegal because the boy was not arrested.

In bodyworn camera footage shown in court, Price can be heard telling Gonen: “Just to let you know he’s spitting in my face.”

Gonen said she was worried about him spitting, so put the collar of his coat near his mouth, the court heard.

The boy’s eyes drooped and he became less responsive, with Price being heard in the footage saying: “You okay, buddy? We’re just trying to help you, buddy.”

Price then told Gonen: “Yeah, he’s hot to the touch.”

In further footage shown to the court, Gonen is seen grabbing the boy by the hair and slapping him across the face several times, causing him to blink his eyes.

Discussing his actions, Gonen told the court: “Whenever there was concern for his life, I decided the best course of action was to slap him gently across the cheeks.

“At that moment I felt like I was saving someone’s life. I felt like I was preventing a medical emergency from happening.”

Judge Briony Clarke said that by her count the boy had been slapped 16 times, and in her view it was clear that Gonen thought the boy was “lying”, then she “suggested to him a known medical condition”. He sought to explain his behavior in the context of “by another colleague at the time”.

The Metropolitan Police referred the case to the IOPC last December.

Mel Palmer, regional director of the IOPC, said: “Police officers must have a lawful reason to detain and search any member of the public and all officers are aware that they have to provide certain information to individuals during searches. Will happen.

“These officers made no attempt to explain their actions and, in fact, both gave different accounts to the IOPC as to what powers they were searching under. Today a judge has found that the search of the child was unlawful.

“Additionally, PC Gonen’s act of slapping the child to check that he was conscious is not an approved method and was found to be a further unlawful use of force.”