A 92-year-old amputee who threatened to stab care home staff had “ample opportunity” to drop his knife before officers sprayed and tasered him, a court has heard.
Pc Stephen Smith, 51, faces trial alongside his colleague Pc Rachel Comotto, 36, for allegedly using excessive force on Donald Burgess during an incident at Park Beck care home in St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex, in June 2022.
Mr Burgess was taken to hospital after the incident and later contracted Covid. He died 22 days later aged 93.
The care home had called 999 after Mr Burgess, a single-leg amputee and wheelchair user, reportedly grabbed a knife and threatened to stab staff.
Smith, who gave evidence on Thursday, told the jury sitting at Southwark Crown Court he did not see that Mr Burgess was disabled and using a wheelchair as he was focused on the knife the pensioner was holding in his hand.
Smith said: “The way he had been threatening staff members – the threat was the knife, to the staff there and also to himself.”
The court heard both Smith and Comotto repeatedly asked Mr Burgess to drop the knife, with Smith warning him: “Put the knife down mate, or you will be sprayed or tasered. That’s up to you.”
Smith told the court he believed Mr Burgess “could clearly understand what we were saying to him”.
In the Sussex Police “use of force form” which Smith filled out shortly after the incident, he wrote Mr Burgess had been “given ample opportunity” to drop the knife before Comotto and himself resorted to force.
Smith also told the court one of the first things he noticed when entering Mr Burgess’s room was that he had “white knuckles”.
Smith said: “That indicated to me that he had an immense grip on that knife.”
When asked by his defence barrister Denis Barry what his goal was at the time, Smith said: “To make sure no-one got injured and look after everyone within the care home.”
Earlier this week, jurors heard that Smith allegedly emptied a full canister of synthetic Pava spray into Mr Burgess’s face and struck him with a baton, with Comotto deploying her Taser – all within one minute and 23 seconds of entering his room.
On Thursday, Smith denied this and said he used a “short burst” of incapacitant on Mr Burgess.
He explained he used the spray to cause Mr Burgess to drop the knife.
When this did not work, Smith deployed his baton.
“I just wanted the knife out of the gent’s hand”, Smith said, adding that he tried to “knock the knife out of Mr Burgess’s hand” by using the baton.
Body-worn camera footage of the incident showed Mr Burgess wincing after being sprayed, then raising the knife a couple of times as Smith flicks the baton towards the resident’s hand.
Smith denies two counts of assault, relating to his use of Pava spray and a baton, while Comotto denies one count for discharging her Taser.
Prosecutors say the force used against Mr Burgess – who had been reportedly threatening staff with a serrated cutlery knife and telling them he would “take pleasure” in murdering them – was excessive and unnecessary given his age and physical condition.
The trial continues.
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