The Police Ombudsman's Office has said a police officer was justified when he used his CS Spray on a woman during unrest in Lurgan on Thursday October 7 2004.
The Police Ombudsman's Office was asked by the PSNI to investigate all use of CS Spray between August and December 2004. Recommendations from those investigations are now being incorporated into the programme for training police officers in their use of the spray.
The Lurgan incident began when police responded to an emergency call for assistance in the William Street area of the town following reports of a woman running in and out of traffic wielding a knife.
When police arrived on the scene the woman threatened an officer, who drew his baton and warned her to drop the knife. She refused and threatened to stab him.
The officer then hit the woman three or four times with his baton and although she fell to the ground she continued to struggle with the police officer. By this stage a hostile crowd had gathered in the area, some of whom moved towards where the police officer was struggling with the woman, who was still armed with a knife.
A second officer warned the crowd several times to move away or he would use his CS Spray. One woman ran from the crowd towards the area where the police officer and the woman were struggling and tried to grab the officer. The second police officer stepped in front of the woman and warned her to step back. She refused to do so and was sprayed once.
Undeterred, the woman continued to move forward and was sprayed a second time. She fell to the ground and the officer rushed to her aid. Police Ombudsman investigators secured CCTV video footage which had captured the events.
The Police Ombudsman's report concluded that the police officer's use of the spray was justified and reasonable:"The two police officers were faced with a situation that potentially threatened their safety. The officer who used the spray was justified in doing so in order to prevent serious assault on his colleague," it said.