Dalian Atkinson: Police officer ‘feared he was going to die’ during encounter with ex-footballer, court hears

Officer fired three Taser cartridges in the incident, claiming the first two were ‘ineffective’

Dalian Atkinson at Aston Villa in 1993 (Getty)

The police officer charged with the murder of ex-footballer Dalian Atkinson told a jury he feared he and his colleague “were going to die” during the encounter.

Benjamin Monk, a West Mercia Police constable, was accused of applying unlawful and unreasonable force through a 33-second firing of his Taser and by kicking the former Aston Villa star in the head.

Jurors heard PC Monk fired three Taser cartridges before Atkinson, who later died in hospital, was handcuffed near his father’s home in Telford, Shropshire, in the early hours of 15 August 2016.

PC Monk denies charges of murder and manslaughter.

Giving evidence for the first time in his defence at Birmingham Crown Court on Wednesday, PC Monk said he felt “a big relief” when Atkinson was floored after being tasered for the third time. PC Monk said two previous Taser strikes had been ineffective, leaving him with only one cartridge remaining.

The officer, then of 14 years’ service, alleged that Atkinson told him: “You can put 100,000 volts through me, I’m the f***ing messiah – your Taser won’t work and now I’m going to take you to the gates of hell.”

When Patrick Gibbs QC, PC Monk’s barrister, asked the officer what he did after the second firing, he replied: “Ran for my life – we ran away,” something he said he had never done in his entire career.

Monk arrives at Birmingham Crown Court on Wednesday (PA)

The 43-year-old said: “He was very, very scary.”

“And the device, which I thought might work for me, hadn’t worked, and I was terrified,” he continued.

PC Monk and PC Mary Ellen Bettley-Smith, a junior colleague with whom he was in a relationship at the time, backed away from Atkinson while waiting for more officers to arrive.

By this time, Atkinson had smashed the glass in the front door of the property belonging to his father. Both officers had been sent to the address in Meadow Close after members of the public had called 999 reporting concern for the welfare of the elderly occupant.

PC Monk said he was told back-up was “six minutes” away.

He said he tasered Atkinson a third time, causing him to fall to the floor, where PC Monk said the former Villa striker started “plucking” at his clothing. The constable felt this was an attempt to free the Taser’s electrical barbs.

At that point, he recalled PC Bettley-Smith coming across and hitting Atkinson across the lower legs with a baton.

PC Monk said Atkinson then gave the impression that he was trying to get back up. Asked what he did in response, PC Monk told the court: “I kicked him.”

The court has already heard evidence that PC Monk’s boot connected with Atkinson’s head, but the officer said that at the time he believed he had kicked the 48-year-old “in the shoulder”.

PC Monk said: “There wasn’t an intention to kick him anywhere; it was an instinctive act – a desperate, instinctive act because this was the last thing I had.

“I believe, in my interview, I said my intention was to kick him in the shoulder, but it’s more realistic to say that it was instinctive.”

Bettley-Smith is charged with causing ABH (PA)

He added: “I wanted Atkinson to stop getting up because I thought if he’s going to get up, we were going to die.”

The court has previously heard that Taser-trained PC Monk had depressed the weapon’s trigger for 33 seconds during the third strike. He said he was not conscious of having done so.

Atkinson died about 70 minutes after the incident, with PC Monk telling jurors that when he found out the news from an inspector back at the police station, it left him “devastated”.

The constable said: “I had no idea it was going to end the way it did, I never wanted it to end the way it did.

“It was horrible to hear.”

PC Monk also denied telling PC Bettley-Smith to, as one eyewitness described, “f***ing hit him” in reference to Atkinson, while the ex-sportsman was lying on the floor.

PC Monk is alleged to have intended to cause really serious injury to Atkinson after his two initial uses of the Taser proved ineffective.

PC Bettley-Smith, 31, is also on trial, and denies a charge of assault occasioning actual bodily harm by using her force-issue extendable baton.

The trial continues.

Additional reporting by agencies