[A] POLICE officer deemed to have assaulted a female motorist at last year’s Appleby horse fair has had the conviction quashed.
PC Lindsay Clark, 53, was found guilty of a common assault charge by a district judge following a magistrates’ court trial earlier this year.
But PC Clark – a man of good character and an unblemished 15-year police service record – lodged an appeal against that conviction. This was heard, and upheld, following a hearing at Carlisle Crown Court this week.
Judge Peter Hughes QC, sitting with two magistrates, heard an incident occurred at the Appleby horse fair last June.
PC Clark was alleged to have assaulted motorist Karen Maskell, who had driven and parked an estate car into a no-waiting zone in the town’s Mill Hill area. It was alleged the officer lent into the vehicle, and “grabbed” and “deliberately squeezed” Ms Maskall’s finger, causing bruising and swelling.
However, PC Clark insisted that wasn’t true. As he spoke to her through the open car window, he said, he saw an object moving towards his face which he swatted away in an “instinctive motion”.
Having heard all evidence, Judge Hughes and his colleagues unanimously allowed PC Clark’s appeal.
Announcing their reasons today (THURS), the judge spoke of evidential “discrepancies” and that they had not found Ms Maskall “to be a reliable and convincing witness”.
“We concluded that the prosecution has not established that the injury was caused by the appellant in the way alleged by the complainant,” said Judge Hughes.
“The appeal is allowed and the conviction quashed.”
