PCs laughed after force used on Donald Burgess, 92, court told

Police officers accused of assaulting an East Sussex care home resident joked about having used a full can of Pava spray on him, a court has heard.

A jury at Southwark Crown Court watched body-worn camera footage on Wednesday of PC Stephen Smith and PC Rachel Comotto in the moments after they restrained Donald Burgess in 2022.

PC Smith, 51, denies two charges of assault by using Pava spray and a baton and PC Comotto, 36, denies one charge of assault by discharging her Taser at the 92-year-old amputee.

Mr Burgess, a wheelchair user, was arrested at Park Beck care home in St Leonards-on-Sea, allegedly after excessive use of force by the officers.

Jurors heard on Tuesday that Mr Burgess said he wanted to murder the care home site manager and was wielding a cutlery knife when police arrived.

Prosecutors say the force used against Mr Burgess was excessive and unnecessary given his age and physical condition.

Mr Burgess was sprayed in the face with incapacitant spray before being Tasered and hit with a baton, the court heard on Monday.

In the footage of the incident’s aftermath shown to jurors on Wednesday, PC Comotto laughs and asks PC Smith: “Oh my God, is there any left in your can?”

PC Smith replies: “Probably not.”

Later, an officer outside the home asks if PC Smith used a “Smithy special”.

The accused then describes the incident as a “stand-off”.

“Even after spraying he clutched on to [the knife] to the point where I was going to knock it out of his hands,” he says.

At one point, Mr Burgess, visibly distressed, tells the officers: “I’m dying.”

He is then handcuffed in his wheelchair and taken outside.

Speaking to care home manager Steve Cooper shortly after the incident, PC Comotto says: “We don’t like doing that at all, but what can you do?”

In a statement she gave during a police interview, which prosecutor Paul Jarvis KC read to jurors, PC Comotto said: “Our objective was clear. It was to disarm Mr Burgess as quickly and safely as possible.

“I do not believe that my use of the Taser was disproportionate. I believe he posed an immediate and significant risk to himself.”

PC Comotto added she was “very shocked” when she learned Mr Burgess was 92 after the incident as she thought he was much younger.

“I treated Mr Burgess with respect and courtesy before and after the force was used,” she said.

Mr Burgess was taken to hospital after the incident and later contracted Covid-19.

He died 22 days later and the PCs are not accused of being responsible for his death.

The trial continues.