Northamptonshire police chief found guilty of contempt over failure to hand over footage
It's after a woman request footage of her arrest, during which she claims she was thrown to the ground, and had her face pushed into stinging nettles
A police chief has been found guilty of contempt of court and now faces a wait to see whether he will be imprisoned or fined.
Nadine Buzzard-Quashie brought legal action against the Chief Constable of Northamptonshire Police for failing to comply with orders in relation to handing over footage of her arrest.
On September 5 2021, she called the force to complain that she had been wrongly arrested by three officers three days earlier, and requested to be provided with video from their body-worn cameras.
Ms Buzzard-Quashie claims the arresting officers physically assaulted her, that she was thrown to the ground, and had her face pushed into stinging nettles. She was taken into custody and charged but the charges were quickly dropped.
The Court of Appeal in London heard that a transcript of the call revealed that some footage was accessed during the conversation and narrated to her.
After Ms Buzzard-Quashie was not provided with the video footage of her arrest and detention, and the police refused to produce it, she filed a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), which ordered videos of her arrest to be produced.
In a ruling handed down on Tuesday, Lord Justice Fraser, sitting with Lord Justice Coulson and Lady Justice Asplin, said: "There was then some piecemeal production but generally the explanation by the police was either that there was no such footage, or what there had been, had been destroyed."
In April 2023, Ms Buzzard-Quashie obtained a court order saying all footage should be produced but that order "was not complied with".
She pursued contempt of court proceedings at Central London County Court on March 15 2024 but the judge refused to find the Chief Constable in contempt.
However, Ms Buzzard-Quashie won on appeal with the judges finding breach of the court order was "wilfully disobedient" and that the conduct around retention and production of the footage "a matter of significant concern".
In his written ruling on Tuesday, Lord Justice Fraser said that when a police force is sued, it is the chief constable who "is responsible for the acts and omissions of the members of their police force".
He found that the county court judge had "erred" in their decision.
The judges allowed the appeal, making their ruling a finding of contempt against the chief constable at the county court.
Lord Justice Fraser said: "The question of contempt before this court, and any sanction for the admitted contempt before the county court, must wait until the next round of the process."
The Chief Constable of Northamptonshire, Ivan Balhatchet, has been in post since October 2023.
The previous chief constable was Nick Adderley, who now faces unrelated criminal charges.
In a statement following the ruling, Northamptonshire Police said: "An apology for the issues has already been given in the shape of the chief constable's witness statement which has been entered as evidence.
"We acknowledge we fell short in terms of providing the body-worn footage in a timely fashion and our failure to locate further missing footage when asked.
"The matter has been referred to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC)."