£22,000 for man arrested after watching stop-and-search

Angry: Ken Hinds was upset by the way he was treated by police
12 April 2012

A black youth worker today criticised the police for damaging race relations after he was handcuffed and detained for watching a stop-and-search.

Ken Hinds is set to receive an apology and £22,000 in compensation from the British Transport Police after being charged and spending four hours in a police cell after witnessing a black teenager being arrested.

The 50-year-old, who regularly liaises with police in his work for a charity tackling gang violence, will receive the payout under an agreement to be finalised this week.

Mr Hinds, from Edmonton, said: "I am disappointed and so angry at the way they treated me. It just shows that 30 years on, relations with the police and the black community have not improved. The black community treats the police with suspicion and incidents like this add fuel to that."

He brought a claim for false imprisonment and malicious prosecution to the High Court.

Mr Hinds, who sits on the Metropolitan Police's Black Independent Advisory Committee and is chairman of the monitoring group for stop-and-search in Haringey, was arrested when he stopped to observe a group of police officers who were searching a black youth at Seven Sisters train station in May 2004.

He said: "There were seven or eight officers tugging at this teenager. It caught my attention because the youth looked scared and alarmed. I wanted to watch to make sure he had a witness in case he was hurt.

"But an officer spotted me and told me to f*** off. When I told him I knew my rights, he said to his colleague, 'I'm going to nick him'. They then put me in tight handcuffs which was very painful."

A charge of threatening and abusive behaviour was dropped after magistrates decided one of the Pcs was "not a credible witness". In settling, the BTP did not admit liability but agreed to apologise.

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