Phil Coleman

The conduct of the UK’s front-line police officers – particularly when they use force - is always an issue of public interest. Amnesty UK has highlighted this, describing Tasers as “potentially lethal weapons,” on occasions implicated in the deaths of people in mental health crisis. Last year, through his work at Carlisle Crown Court, Phil Coleman became aware of a case which goes to the heart of this issue. He learned of a distressing incident in which a young man, suffering a psychotic episode, was subjected to multiple Tasering and “extreme verbal aggression”. 

Police knew the man was distressed and potentially carrying a knife, though he discarded this immediately when he saw the officers approaching him. They found him in his stocking feet, walking his dog, on an isolated country road. At the conclusion of the encounter, the man had a fractured skull, and a life-changing brain injury. Phil learned there was police body-worn video footage of what happened. However, with the planned prosecution abandoned, the footage was not played in court. The challenge was to ensure it was played in open court, opening the door to a challenge for its release. Phil played a key role in ensuring that happened, providing the core material for an expose - conceived primarily for online - of aggressive police conduct . 

Despite police opposition, Coleman's legal challenge - conducted over several months - ensured the footage was released to him. Judge Nicholas Barker ruled that this was in the public interest. The police conduct it shows is at best disturbing; and at worst highly dangerous: a vulnerable young man, holding no weapon, posing no threat, initially calm, being yelled at by police officers, sworn at, and manhandled by police officers who made no attempt to engage with him. Terrified, the man tried to flee only to be pursued and repeatedly Tasered. 

The final images show him prostrate on the ground, struggling to breath, his head bleeding. He spent a month in hospital, and needed two operations. Phil's frame-by-frame analysis of the footage showed that at no point was he holding a knife. The behaviour of the officers involved –breaching ACPO and College of Policing guidance on dealing with vulnerable suspects - was defended by senior Cumbrian officers, their stance bolstered by an IOPC investigation which declared the conduct "not unreasonable". Others - including Amnesty UK, a former Cumbrian public health chief, a retired police sergeant, and many of our readers - disagreed. 

Professor John Ashton said of the video: "It was like watching a brawl in Carlisle’s Lowther Street on a Friday night, with these people setting upon an innocent victim. I spent years trying to get the Chief Constable to make it a priority to give front-line officers basic training in mental health issues so they can respond appropriately. “This video shows that has fallen on deaf ears." Without Phil Coleman's persistence, this story would never have been told.