A 90-year-old man was left bleeding on the pavement when a police officer forced him to the ground during a trivial row over a parking ticket, a court has heard.
Published: 9:42AM GMT 05 Jan 2010 Daily Telegraph
Gordon Slack suffered a bloodied nose and lip, a black eye and cuts to his face in the incident in Duffield, near Derby.
A jury at Derby Crown Court was told that PC David Morton, 30, grabbed Mr Slack by the arm and forced him on to the pavement outside the town’s Co--op store.
The court heard the incident allegedly happened after Mr Slack and his daughter Lynne argued with a traffic warden and a police community support officer.
Chris Kesling, prosecuting, said the force used by Morton was "unjustified".
He said: "It is 11 to 12 seconds between him [Morton] stepping out of the police vehicle to taking Gordon Slack to the ground.
“What was used was excessive and unjustified force by this policeman."
Mr Kesling said the dispute over the parking ticket began after Mr Slack's daughter, Lynne, parked her Ford Fiesta illegally.
While Miss Slack and a friend went into the Co-op, Mr Slack was left sitting in the back seat.
When a traffic warden approached the car and started writing out a ticket, Mr Slack got out and started arguing .
Mr Slack, now 91, told the court: "He [the traffic warden] was running round the car like a little rabbit so I thought I'd better find out what was wrong.
"He was scribbling on a piece of paper so I said 'put that paper down'. That started the trouble.
"I said 'I'm not shifting from here until a policeman comes and tells me whether I'm right or wrong'."
