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Met officer sacked two years after attacking a teenage black girl with learning disabilities

A METROPOLITAN POLICE officer has finally been sacked after he used CS gas and his baton to attack a teenage black girl who has learning disabilities.

PC Benjamin Kemp attacked the girl on May 8 2019 — but it has taken two years for the London force to investigate the case and sack him for gross misconduct at a disciplinary hearing on Friday.

The victim has not been named. Her family is calling for the attacker to be prosecuted.

Policing watchdog the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), which investigated the attack, has sent a file to the Director of Public Prosecutions.

The IOPC said the teenager ran from a group on an escorted walk in Newham, east London, after becoming distressed.

An IOPC spokesperson said: “She was near a main road, and police were called by a concerned member of the public. The girl also flagged down a passing police car.

“Officers’ body-worn video showed the girl told officers she was a vulnerable child with mental health problems. She agreed to get in the police car but then got out of it.”

Officers tried to speak to her and then PC Kemp attempted to handcuff her, the spokesperson said.

They added: “When this was unsuccessful, he then used CS spray less than a metre from her face. Within seconds he started using his baton and then struck her several times.

“When another police unit arrived, the girl was immediately tasered by an officer from that vehicle.

“She was then struck several times more with the baton by PC Kemp, handcuffed and put into a police van. In total, she was struck at least 30 times.”

The IOPC said racial and disability discrimination were not found to be factors in the attack.

Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) spokeswoman Linda Burnip condemned the attack as “one of the worst cases of unacceptable policing that I have ever come across.”

She said lack of racial or disability hate in the attack was hard to credit.

Ms Burnip said: “The fact that this ex-police officer was able to beat this young woman over 30 times with his baton without the Crown Prosecution Service charging him with assault or, better, grievous bodily harm is frankly terrifying — and unlikely to make women feel safe on our streets or trust the police service.”

Footage from police officers’ body cameras has not been released.

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