A police officer was acquitted of dangerous driving following a Police Ombudsman investigation prompted by television coverage of disturbances in north Belfast in 2001.
The then Police Ombudsman, Mrs Nuala O'Loan, ordered an investigation after watching a BBC television news broadcast on 13 July 2001 which showed a police Land Rover mounting a pavement and being driven towards a group of youths.
The footage showed the youths running across the Ardoyne Road towards a hole in a fence as the police vehicle approached. The Land Rover crossed the road, mounted the pavement and continued towards the youths before coming to a halt on the pavement. None of the youths appeared to have been struck and the Land Rover then drove off.
Having watched the incident on television, the Police Ombudsman contacted the police commander in charge of the policing operation in north Belfast and asked that police drivers be reminded about their driving standards.
The police commander established the name of the driver involved in the incident (Officer A) and the Police Ombudsman subsequently launched an investigation into the way the Land Rover had been driven.
When interviewed under caution by Police Ombudsman investigators, Officer A stated that he had been responding to a request for assistance from other police in the area. He said a large number of police officers had been injured during rioting the previous night, and claimed that later on 13 July 2001 a police Land Rover had been wrecked by the same group of youths he had driven towards.
Enquiries by Police Ombudsman investigators found no evidence of a police radio transmission requesting assistance matching that described by Officer A. They also found no evidence to support his claim that the same youths had wrecked a police Land Rover.
The Police Ombudsman's Office sent a file of evidence on the case to the Director of Public Prosecutions, which subsequently directed that Officer A should be prosecuted for dangerous driving.
The officer appeared at Belfast Magistrates Court in November 2004 and was acquitted after the presentation of the prosecution case, when the Magistrate dismissed the charge.
The Police Ombudsman then considered whether Officer A had committed any misconduct offences. She took the view that the way in which the Land Rover had been driven represented an unnecessary and disproportionate use of force, given that, at the time of the incident, the youths posed no particular threat to police officers or members of the public.
In January 2005 the Police Ombudsman sent a file to the PSNI Professional Standards Department which resulted in the officer being required to attend a misconduct hearing.
For various legal and procedural reasons, there were significant delays in the PSNI being able to hold the hearing. When it did take place - in May 2010 - the misconduct panel made a decision not to proceed with any charges against Officer A, but rather to have the matter stayed.
