Jocelyn Agyemang asked PC Perry Lathwood to release his grip 36 times as her terrified son looked on after being wrongly held for bus fare evasion
A mum who was wrongly arrested for fare evasion by an officer who called her a “daft cow” has sobbed as she told how she had once wanted to join the police.
Jocelyn Agyemang was filmed asking PC Perry Lathwood to let go of her arm 36 times as he gripped her in front of her distressed young son. The PC caused bruising, during the arrest in July 2023 in Croydon, South London, it was said.
A video of the incident shared on social media went viral, the police misconduct tribunal heard. Ms Agyemang said the incident was “deeply humiliating and embarrassing” and that the PC had a “look of contempt in his eyes”, a court has previously heard.
The PC was fined £1,500 for assault after wrongly arresting the woman, but had his conviction quashed last September. The Metropolitan police officer is now facing misconduct proceedings over the allegation that he used force against the woman unlawfully.
Ms Agyemang went to A&E after the incident and was given anti-inflammatories for bruising to her arm. She gave evidence from behind a screen on Monday and became tearful when asked about the arrest.
Asked if she had any anti-police sentiment at the time, Ms Agyemang said: “I am not against the police at all, I actually have a degree in policing and wanted to be a police officer.” Opening the case for the Met, Cecily White, said Ms Agyemang had been stopped getting off a bus as Transport for London revenue protection inspectors were being assisted by police.
Ms White said Ms Agyemang was with her son at the time, had an appointment to get to and needed to drop her child off at her mother’s house before it. An RPI and a PCSO asked to check Ms Agyemang’s ticket, and she indicated “she did not want to stop, asking them to ‘walk with me, walk with me”‘, the tribunal heard.
“She (Ms Agyemang) had in fact already paid her fare,” Ms White said. It is alleged Mr Lathwood then walked towards Ms Agyemang, took hold of her arm and continued to use force against her by holding onto her arm and wrist, the hearing was told, before handcuffing her.
In Lathwood’s bodyworn footage, shown to the hearing, Ms Agyemang is heard saying “can you get off my arm”, “I haven’t done anything” and “get off me”, before she begins shouting: “Can you get off me? This man is hurting me.” She also says: “You are actually hurting my arm, can you get off my please? I actually feel sick,” while her son appears to become increasingly distressed.
In the footage, Mr Lathwood appears to shout at her to “stop resisting” and shortly afterwards says “there’s a road behind you you daft cow, stay here”. Other staff at the scene are heard to tell Ms Agyemang to calm down, as she said: “What the f*** is going on? I need to take my son,” and asked: “What for?” when she was told she was under arrest.
At one point she fell to the floor. The commotion continues for at least four minutes as other staff speak to Ms Agyemang and passers-by ask what is happening, and one RPI says: “Can we try and scan her card please?”
Another officer took her Oyster card and went away with it to see if she had paid, and Ms Agyemang was de-arrested at the scene after it was confirmed she had paid her fare. That evening Ms Agyemang called police and said she had been restrained by an officer who had hurt her arm such that it was “feeling dead” and still hurting.
She reportedly said she did not understand why she had been dealt in that way and had been crying on the phone.
Ms White told the hearing Mr Lathwood is “obviously angry and frustrated” in the footage, and said it was “obviously disproportionate and unnecessary to apply that use of force and to handcuff her”. “What that did was massively inflame the situation,” she told the hearing. “Whilst it is accepted that Miss A(gyemang) is confrontational to the officer, in the main that is in response to his laying hands on her, and not the other way round.”
The tribunal continues.
