PA MediaA man who fell from an outbuilding after being Tasered by a police officer is now confined to a wheelchair, a court has been told.
Leonard Sandiford was running away from police in Woodford Green, east London, when he reached a cul-de-sac and climbed on to a “shed structure”. He was Tasered and fell from a height of 5 to 6ft (1.5 to 1.8m).
The 61-year-old sustained an injury to his spinal cord and is now tetraplegic and in a wheelchair, Irshad Sheikh, prosecuting, told Southwark Crown Court on Monday.
Metropolitan Police Constable Liam Newman, 31, from Hornchurch, denies grievous bodily harm against Sandiford.
Giving evidence, Sandiford said he remembered running from police and something hitting him in his neck or back.
“Then my lights went out,” he told jurors. “I woke up in the Royal London Hospital about two months later.”
Jurors were told the prosecution case is that Newman firing the Taser in the circumstances was an unreasonable use of force and was therefore unlawful.
Opening the case, Sheikh said: “Mr Sandiford was simply running away. He was not a threat to either of the officers.”
He told the court that Newman had been on training programmes for the deployment and use of Tasers, and added: “A person being incapacitated in these circumstances would inevitably lead to the risk of an uncontrolled and unsupported fall.
“The risk of injury being caused in these circumstances should have been obvious to PC Newman.”
Newman was with another officer responding to a report of attempted burglary of a bookmakers in Chigwell Road, Woodford Green, at 05:00 on 24 April 2022.
The two officers approached a white Ford van which Sandiford was driving, and cut it off as it approached a side road.
Jurors were told the pair tried to stop the vehicle and Newman used his baton to strike at the driver’s side, opened the driver’s door and tried to pull Sandiford out.
Sandiford held his hands up as he got out of the vehicle and Newman shouted at him to get on to his knees while pointing a Taser at him, the court heard.
Sandiford bent his knees slightly before running away, and was pursued by the two officers.
Kevin Baumber, defending, asked whether Sandiford had been trying to burgle the betting shop, which he denied.
Sandiford told the court he ran from police because he had been “spooked” after seeing a truncheon and a Taser.
“I made a promise to my children that I wouldn’t go down that road again and I wouldn’t go back to prison,” he said.
“I just told myself I ain’t going to jail for something I ain’t done.”
Newman fired his Taser twice during the chase and twice when Sandiford had scaled the wall of the shed, jurors were told.
After the first shot while Sandiford was on the wall, he “gave out a yell but continued on his way”, Sheikh said.
The second discharge incapacitated Sandiford, leading him to lose control of his muscles and fall to the ground.
The trial continues.
