Riots PC denies assault charge

A Metropolitan Police officer has denied assaulting a black teenager who was in custody. Constable Joseph Harrington, 28, pleaded not guilty at Westminster magistrates' court, London, to a charge of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

The alleged incident took place against a 16-year-old boy at Forest Gate police station in east London, days after the summer riots, on 11 August last year. PC Harrington, from Walthamstow, was given bail and will appear at Southwark Crown Court on 13 July.