Police sergeant faces sack over assault on woman
Monday 6th September 2010, 9:14AM BST.
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A police sergeant faces the sack after being caught on CCTV injuring a woman by pushing her into a cell.
Sgt Mark Andrews is shown dragging Pamela Somerville, 57, across the floor of the police station in Wiltshire before shoving her into a cell.
CCTV footage captured her lying on the floor for a minute before struggling to get up with blood pouring from a head wound.
Former soldier Sgt Andrews, 37, was eventually convicted of assault causing actual bodily harm after a trial at Oxford Magistrates’ Court earlier this summer.
He will be sentenced tomorrow and is expected to lose his job.
The case was brought after another officer at Melksham station reported his behaviour to a supervisor.
It happened in July 2008, when Ms Somerville was arrested after being found asleep in her car. She was detained for failing to provide a sample for a breath test.
She was thrown in the cell at Melksham police station after being grabbed in the station lobby by custody sergeant Andrews.
CCTV footage shows Andrews coming back into the cell after she gets to her feet and calls for help before another person comes to check her and paramedics are called.
She needed stitches in a gash above her eye.
Ms Somerville, now aged 59, told the Mail on Sunday: “I still find it hard to watch the images of me staggering to my feet with blood pouring from a head wound because I can remember how terrified I was.”
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