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LONDON - British Police said today they were carrying out a full investigation after an officer was filmed on a security camera repeatedly punching a woman while arresting her.
CCTV pictures obtained by the Guardian newspaper and broadcast widely on television showed the officer punching Toni Comer five times while apprehending her last year for damaging a car, an offence she has since admitted.
The officer involved, named by the Guardian as police constable Anthony Mulhall, said he was acting in self-defence.
He has been withdrawn from public duties, but not suspended, while the inquiry is carried out.
The footage shows Comer, 20, wrestling with the officer outside a nightclub in Sheffield from which she had been ejected. Other officers then come to assist.
"She now began to kick, spit and made attempts to bite me... she tried to grab handfuls of my genitals and knee and kick me in the same place," Mulhall said in a statement after the arrest, according to the Guardian.
"At this point I struck her as hard as I was physically able with my right fist in an attempt to subdue her. There was no effect so I did it twice more."
He said he had hit her on the arm in order to allow her to be handcuffed.
Comer said she was pleased the officer had been taken off front line duty.
"I'm quite glad about that because then he can't do that to nobody else," she told BBC TV.
She said she was surprised about the reaction the case had provoked.
"People are quite shocked that the police would actually do something like that to somebody and they hope they get what's coming to them," she said.
South Yorkshire Police said they would "fully and comprehensively" investigate what had happened and that the IPCC would supervise the probe.
Chief Constable Meredydd Hughes said the film had been taken out of context.
"It is the police officer who has drawn everybody's attention to this matter -- to the force he used," he told BBC TV.
"Despite the force you can see being used, she has not had any injuries and has not received, or needed medical attention."
He said he took allegations of assault very seriously.
"I don't want a force of thugs, I want a force I can be proud of, as I am so often with the work that they do," he said.
Earlier, police said they were angry at suggestions in a BBC Newsnight report, which they said accused them of racism. Comer is black.
"Suffice to say the force is outraged at the report itself and the possible suggestion this may be linked to any racist incident," a police spokesman said.
- REUTERS
