The Police Ombudsman has said a police officer was right to have used his CS Spray in Coleraine Police Station to stop a man who was a danger to police officers and to himself.
For a limited period following the introduction of CS Spray, the Police Ombudsman's Office was asked to investigate all uses of the device by officers.
One such incident began in the early hours of October 28 2004 when police responded to a call that a man was seen acting suspiciously at a petrol station in Coleraine before driving off.
The police found the man pushing a car in Atlantic Road. The officers suspected him of being under the influence of drink and arrested him. The man refused to get out of his car and had to be forcibly removed.
At Coleraine Police Station the man continued to be abusive to police officers. The man said he had Hepatitis B and HIV and threatened to spit at the officers. He was found to be carrying shards of glass which he said were to harm himself and to infect others.
The man was taken to a cell where it was arranged that he speak to a solicitor.
Later on in the night, a police officer said he could hear shouting and screaming coming from the man's cell.
When a police officer ran to the cell, the man tried to barricade the door. The officer said the man was holding a piece of plastic which appeared to have been broken from the cell light shade and was cutting one of his arms with it.
On seeing the police officer the man approached him with the shard of plastic. The officer called for assistance and warned the man that he may have to use CS Spray. The man lunged towards the officer and a colleague spray him.
Police Ombudsman investigators recovered CCTV footage which captured much of what happened.
The man gave a statement to Police Ombudsman investigators saying he was physically and mentally sick and said that on the night in question he had gone into a panic attack:
The Police Ombudsman, Mrs Nuala O'Loan, has said the officer was right to have used his Spray:
"He was faced with a situation where immediate action was needed to stop the threat which the man posed to himself and to others. It was a potentially life threatening situation. His action help prevent a serious assault on a colleague or injury to the man who had been arrested," she said