Kick 'an instant reaction', policeman tells court

Police sergeant Martin James Folan. Photo / Brett Phibbs

A police sergeant has described using the ball of his foot to push a charging prisoner off balance but the Crown says he kicked the man in the groin.

West Auckland Sergeant Martin James Folan is in the witness box at his trial in the Auckland District Court.

The former bricklayer from Glasgow has pleaded not guilty to six charges of assault relating to incidents with five prisoners.

Folan said Samuel Verdonk came into the Henderson police station intoxicated after being arrested for disorderly behaviour in November 2009.

He said Mr Verdonk was "self-harming" and banging his head against the concrete walls of his cell.

Folan said he decided police needed to go in and restrain Mr Verdonk for his own safety.

He asked one of the constables on shift to open Verdonk's cell door.

"I said: 'You've got to calm down'. He just came flying at me straight away. I raised my right leg and pushed him away with the ball of my foot."

Folan said his foot connected with Verdonk's stomach, pushing him off balance.

Crown witness Constable Scott Shearer has previously told the court that he saw Folan kick Verdonk "about as hard as he could kick".

"I felt that it affected the purpose of what we needed to do but the area on the body was not the area I would choose to direct force... From my own personal point of view, it's common sense, that is an area of the male anatomy that is very painful if struck," Mr Shearer said.

Folan had faced another charge of injuring with intent, relating to prisoner Joseph McGee, who had to have a testicle removed after allegedly being kneed in the groin.

But the charge was dropped yesterday by Judge Roderick Joyce, QC, who said he accepted there was no evidence to link the injury to Folan's knee.

In his evidence yesterday, Folan also denied elbowing a handcuffed 16-year-old in the face.

Folan said he was called to a street in Glen Eden where there had been reports of letterboxes being smashed.

He found teenager Finn Campbell parked in a car with five friends, one of whom bolted from the vehicle as he pulled up.

Folan said Mr Campbell separated himself from the group.

"He was shouting, 'You can't do anything to me'. He turned to his friends and shouted to them, 'He can't do anything to us'."

Folan said he asked the teenager to stop shouting, then warned him that he was being obstructive and breaching the peace.

"He continued to shout. I said, 'Okay, you're under arrest'."

He handcuffed Mr Campbell and put him into the back of his patrol car as the 16-year-old continued to shout.

Folan said he put a seatbelt on Mr Campbell.

Last week, Mr Campbell told the court that as the seatbelt was being put on him, he asked Folan, "Why do you have to be a dick about this?".

He said Folan elbowed him in the face and said, "Don't call me a dick".

Folan said Mr Campbell was giving him a verbal tirade, but he did not recall touching him at all.

Yesterday morning, Sergeant Wendy Pickering said she was shocked by a conversation with Folan at the staff Christmas party.

"He said to me he had been angry with a prisoner and in the processing bay they wound each other up and that he went around to the counter and choked him with both hands."

She said Folan also told her of a separate incident involving another prisoner in which he had "smashed his head on a concrete floor".

Defence lawyer Richard Earwaker said Folan would deny saying that.