A POLICE officer is expected to face an internal disciplinary hearing after he failed to have his conviction for assaulting a man with learning difficulties overturned.
Howard Robinson, who is based at Strand Road station in Derry committed the "low-level" assault on his victim (26) at Knightsbridge in the Waterside area of Derry on May 5 last year.
In April this year he was convicted of assault, fined £750 and ordered to pay his victim £250 compensation.
The incident was reported by another police officer who was on patrol in an unmarked police car with Robinson. It was also reported to the Police Ombudsman.
Derry County Court appeal was told today that the two officers were on their way to Altnagelvin Hospital when they stopped at the scene of a road traffic incident close to the junction of Crescent Link Road and Knightsbridge.
The injured party was standing on the footpath close to the incident and became excited, jumping up and down. He was known by Robinson's colleague as being a man with learning difficulties.
The court was told that Robinson saw the victim putting a plastic bag into a fence surrounding an electricity sub-station. He thought the actions of the victim were suspicious and he drove after the victim into Knightsbridge before getting out of the police car and stopping him.
The man was acting in an excited and animated manner. He became agitated and reached into his pocket to get his mobile phone. Robinson grabbed him by both wrists and used his thumb to apply pressure to the back of one. Robinson's colleague told the court that the victim "looked frightened and he was standing as stiff as a board and started to cry".
Dismissing the appeal, Judge Philip Babington said he was satisfied that that a minor low level assault had taken place.
