ACQUITTED: Met Police officer convicted of attacking taxi driver has conviction quashed

A Metropolitan Police officer convicted of attacking a taxi driver in Essex has had his conviction quashed at an appeal hearing.

The officer, PC Gareth Head, originally stood trial charged with causing actual bodily harm after an alleged incident in Brentwood, Essex.

The ex-police constable appeared at Basildon Crown Court to stand trial for two counts of racially aggravated actual bodily harm and actual bodily harm. The charges were brought after a complaint was made in 2018 by a taxi driver working in Brentwood.

Mr Head's first trial saw the officer acquitted of the racially aggravated charge, but no verdict could be reached on the ABH count. A second trial this year on 1 March saw a jury find him guilty of that charge.

The charges followed an investigation by the Independent Office of Police Conduct (IOPC) who were then authorised by the Crown Prosecution Service to charge Mr Head. However, during this summer an appeal was made against the conviction at the Court of Appeal, and the IOPC has now formally announced that appeal was successful and Mr Head has now been acquitted of the criminal charge.

An IOPC spokesperson said: “Following an IOPC investigation, PC Gareth Head – who was then a serving Metropolitan Police Service officer - was found guilty by a jury at Basildon Crown Court on 1 March of causing actual bodily harm.

“He was sentenced to a 12-month community order and ordered to pay the victim surcharge of £85 and £1750 towards prosecution costs.

“His conviction was subsequently quashed by the Court of Appeal on 10 August.”