Police watchdog forced to apologise after court overturns clearance of officer who punched Black pensioner

Exclusive: Errol Dixon, 71, has mild dementia and was punched in the face by a police officer inSeptember 2021

Errol Dixon was hospitalised as a result of injuries suffered during a police stop (Screenshot)

The High Court has overturned a police watchdog’s decision that a Metropolitan Police officer who punched an elderly Black man in the face has no misconduct case to answer for - forcing the IOPC to apologise.

Errol Dixon, 71, who has mild dementia, was stopped in his car by police officers in Bromley, South East London, on 13 September 2021.

During the incident, an officer held Mr Dixon round the neck and punched him in the face causing him to suffer a broken nose, fractured cheekbone and eye socket and a displaced septum. He was hospitalised as a result of his injuries.

Following an investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) which concluded in November, it was claimed that PC Read was acting in “self-defence” against the pensioner, that the force used was “reasonable, justified and proportionate” and no officer had a misconduct case to answer for.

This prompted Mr Dixon to launch a judicial review through the High Court in February 2023 which was won on Tuesday and the IOPC has back peddled.

“We acknowledge and apologise that we applied the wrong legal test in Mr Dixon’s case,” a watchdog spokesperson said.

“We have agreed to appoint a new decision maker to apply the correct test and make a fresh decision about whether or not the officer who struck Mr Dixon should now face disciplinary proceedings.”

“I was shocked and disappointed by the first of the IOPC that the force used by PC Read who throttled me and punched me directly in the face could not amount to misconduct,” Mr Dixon said, following the high court ruling. “I still believe that PC Read used excessive force upon me because I am a Black man and that if I was an elderly white man I would have been treated very differently. I am very pleased that the High Court has struck down the first IOPC decision.

“I can only hope that the IOPC will now uphold my complaint so that PC Read can face justice at an independent police tribunal”.

The high court found that the IOPC decision maker had misapplied the correct legal test and that a misconduct panel could find that PC Read had used disproportionate force and had been dishonest about the relevant events.

Mr Dixon, who was born in Jamaica and moved to Britain aged 12, argued the decision the officers had no case to answer for misconduct was irrational and that the IOPC had failed to properly apply the law in relation to race discrimination.

“I’ve been pulled over by the police hundreds of times (...) You never stop getting pulled over by the police as long as you’re Black in this country,” Mr Dixon said in a previous interview. “Being at my age, I thought this would stop (...) they would look at me as an old man. But nothing’s changed.”

A court ruling has consequently quashed the IOPC decision and a new decision maker with no previous involvement in the case will consider the case afresh.

Despite this turn of events, concerns mount regarding the extent to which the watchdog can be trusted to robustly and independently review cases of police misconduct and brutality in light of previous failings.

In February 2023, the charity INQUEST published a report I Can’t Breathe: Race, death and British policing that examined the extent to which the IOPC is adequately investigating racism within police forces.

Sophie Naftalin, solicitor for Mr Dixon said: “This case is yet another example of how the independent police watchdog is failing to discharge its function to hold police officers to account.

“Not only did the IOPC reach unsustainable conclusions in the first place, they also spent months fighting this challenge and wasting public funds in doing so. We are pleased that the IOPC eventually conceded that their decision-making was unlawful and we welcome the Order of the High Court quashing the original decision.

“We now invite the IOPC to properly examine the evidence in this case and to make a lawful decision so that PC Read is held accountable for his treatment of Mr Dixon”.

In March 2023, the Casey Review concluded that there was institutional racism within the Metropolitan Police and that Black Londoners are under-protected and over policed.

The IOPC has been approached for comment.