Police officer who assaulted autistic boy at special-needs school avoids jail

‘Bully’ PC who was in ‘safer schools’ unit fined £800 after dragging pupil along floor

A police officer who was part of a “safer schools” unit dragged a schoolboy with autism along a floor by his coat hood after the child tried to crawl away from him in fear.

The officer left the 10-year-old boy with injuries to his knee, then yelled “you’re next” to another child at the school for pupils with special needs.

Christopher Cruise, who was a school liaison officer for Merseyside Police, was convicted of assault, and retired before an internal disciplinary process ended.

But a special hearing concluded that if he had still been serving, he would have been sacked immediately because his actions would have been considered gross misconduct.

The assault, at a school in Liverpool last year, led to his being fined £800 at Crewe Magistrates’ Court and ordered to pay £100 in compensation, as well as £500 in prosecution costs and an £85 victim surcharge, the Liverpool Echo reported.

He appealed unsuccessfully to Chester Crown Court against his conviction, costing him an extra £1,620 in legal fees.

The boy’s family, who branded the officer a bully, said he should have been jailed.

A CCTV recording started with Cruise raising his leg threateningly as though about to kick the boy, who is on the floor of a school corridor.

The boy, who cannot be identified, tried to crawl through a door before Cruise reached down, grabbed him by the hood of his coat and dragged him across the corridor while the boy’s legs trailed behind him.

The misconduct hearing was told that after the attack, Cruise walked into a classroom and asked the children whether they could hear the victim crying.

He then pointed at one child and said: “You’re next”.

A relative of the boy told the Echo: “I think he should have been put in prison. His sentence was so lenient. He is a bully, that’s all he is, just a bully.”

Earlier, she said: “He has autism and he struggles a lot. He is much younger in his head, more like a five-year-old.

“We are all absolutely furious. His days are hard enough already.”

The family say the boy has still not talked about the assault, and they are unclear what started it.

Detective Superintendent Cheryl Rhodes, from the force’s professional standards department, said: “Merseyside Police takes the professional standards of its officers and staff extremely seriously.

“The actions of this officer are not reflective of the behaviour and standards of our schools officers, who do a fantastic job day in and day out.

“Following the incident, all schools officers underwent additional training in conjunction with the Merseyside Police training academy, School Improvement Liverpool and the local authority.

“The public quite rightly have high expectations of our officers, and we seek to uphold that and ensure that the meet those expectations. Sadly, on a minority of occasions, when they fall short we will take swift and effective action to ensure that we retain the public’s confidence in the force.”