What happened

In October 2011 my son was injured in front of me by three police officers outside a football game. He was left with a broken eye socket through no fault of his own. We had to battle for five years for a proper investigation. Eventually in summer 2016 we were told that the officers would face disciplinary proceedings for assault; and criminal proceedings for assault and perverting the course of justice. The officers' criminal trial is to take place in summer 2017, with their disciplinary proceedings to follow. Because of the criminal trial against the officers my son and the officers cannot be named. Full details have been provided to crowdjustice. 

Inspector trying to escape justice

In October 2016, we were told on a Friday that the Met was allowing one of the officers - a police Inspector - to retire on the following Monday. This would have meant that the Inspector would not face any disciplinary proceedings as police officers cannot be disciplined after they leave their force. To prevent this we  made an urgent application to a judge to stop the officer retiring. 

The judge granted us permission to go ahead with a judicial review challenging the Met's decision to allow the Inspector to retire. A full hearing of the legal arguments  will be heard in the High Court in London on 7/8 December 2016. The Met is fighting the case hard and refusing to back down for reasons we cannot accept or understand. The Met is arguing that because the Inspector is being criminally prosecuted this decreases the importance of his being disciplined, whereas we think the opposite: it increases the importance of his being disciplined. If any of us were criminally prosecuted for something to do with our work, we would obviously also be disciplined. There should not be a different rule for the police. 

My family has fought for justice for my son and the public for  five years. We do not want this Inspector to be allowed to walk away with a full pension just as we are close to making him accountable. Concern has also been expressed in the media about this Inspector potentially avoiding being disciplined. 

Help needed

Unless my son can argue his case in court in December, the Inspector will be allowed to leave the Met immediately and he will never face a disciplinary hearing. This will also mean that he can collect his pension (which is partly paid by public money) in full and he will  not have to pay any of it back, even if he is found guilty at his criminal trial. The only way to prevent this is to prevent his retirement now. 

We need to raise between £20,000 - £35,000 in order to take this case to court. This is the amount the police have estimated their legal costs to be, and my son may be ordered to pay these if he loses in court. My son is not eligible for legal aid because he has a job. My family work in construction and do not have anything close to that kind of money, so unless it can be crowd-funded my son will not be able to go ahead with his case and the Inspector will walk away from the disciplinary proceedings with a full public pension. 

Please help by pledging whatever you can afford as soon as you can in November. 

Thank you for your time and for any help you can provide. I will keep you updated.

Statement from my son's lawyer Tony Murphy, partner at Bhatt Murphy Solicitors, London:

"The issues in this case are very important to my client and his family but also to society at large. Police officers should not be allowed to avoid being disciplined by retiring on a full pension. This is an issue that concerns every member of society and every tax payer."