The Police Ombudsman has concluded that a police officer acted properly when she discharged CS incapicitant spray at a man who was approaching her with a pick axe handle raised above his head.
The incident happened in the Roemill Gardens area of Limavady in the early hours of 4 December 2004 as three police officers responded to a reported disturbance in the area.
The scene was quiet on arrival, but the officers did speak to one man who was seen drinking in the street. As they tried to deal with this man, another emerged from a nearby garden and ran towards them with a half brick in his hand. The man dropped the brick when ordered to do so by an officer, but struggled violently when apprehended by the officers.
A number of other people, including the man who had been seen drinking in the street, attempted to free the man from the police.
As the struggle continued an officer took out her CS spray canister, shook it and warned that it would be used if the man did not stop struggling.
As she did so, a colleague shouted a warning after spotting another man coming towards her with a pick axe handle raised above his head. The female officer immediately turned around and sprayed him with CS Spray, from an estimated distance of 10-12 feet.
After a few seconds the man dropped his weapon and began to run away, pursued by police. He subsequently lay down in a garden, where the female officer told him not to move, that he had been sprayed with CS Spray and not to rub his eyes.
The officer then arrested the man on suspicion of a number of offences. He managed to run off again as police searched for another man involved in the incident, but he was quickly recaptured and taken to Limavady police station.
The Police Ombudsman's investigation into the incident established that the officer who used CS Spray had been properly trained in its use and authorised to carry and use it.
After considering the evidence of the case, Mrs Nuala O'Loan concluded that the officer had been subjected to an "apparently completely unprovoked" attack.
She was, said Mrs O'Loan, "faced with a situation where immediate action was necessary to stop the continued threat of violence posed to herself and her colleagues."
She accepted that the officer would not have had time to issue a warning in the circumstances.
The Police Ombudsman also made two recommendations to the PSNI in respect of the recording of both the seal and serial number on CS Spray canisters, after it emerged in this case that the information had been only partially recorded.