Judge finds woman used reasonable force when she bit and kicked guards during attempt to deport her

A Nigerian rape survivor who was under constant supervision at an immigration detention centre because she was at high risk of self-harm has been cleared of assaulting four guards who restrained her and tried to force her on to a charter flight.

A district judge at Luton magistrates court ruled on Tuesday that although the woman bit three officers and kicked a fourth, she was satisfied that the woman did not threaten or use any violence towards staff before the guards’ use of force began.

The judge, Sally Fudge, said that while the injuries the woman inflicted on the guards were unpleasant, the amount of force she used while she was being restrained was reasonable.

The 48-year-old woman, whom the Guardian has chosen not to name, welcomed the judgment. She said: “For almost two years I haven’t been able to sleep because of this case. Now at last I’m free.”

There has been controversy over the Home Office’s handling of charter flights to deport people. Earlier on Tuesday a charter flight to Jamaica took off carrying 17 people.

During the court hearing, the woman described how she was thrown to the floor “like a bag of cement” during the incident, which involved 11 guards.

She said a blanket was placed over her head and she was unable to breathe and feared she would die.

The woman was a detainee at Yarl’s Wood immigration removal centre in Bedfordshire when the incident occurred on 30 May 2018. She was restrained after resisting being put on a charter flight to Nigeria that was due to fly from Birmingham airport that evening.

She said she resisted because she had spoken to her solicitor and believed the removal was not going ahead. Her removal directions were indeed cancelled that day.

She was charged with assault and accused of biting three guards and kicking a fourth while being restrained.

In a video of the incident she can be heard screaming as several guards shout back at her.

An expert medical report commissioned by the woman’s lawyers found that she sustained multiple injuries during the restraint episode, including handcuff injuries, scarring to her arms and legs and neck pain due to the way her head was restrained. She has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

One of the guards, Sarah Porthouse, was suspended after striking the woman in the face, but she told the court she had been cleared of any wrongdoing following an investigation because her action was found to have been in self-defence and “instinctive”.

The court heard that the woman was first raped at the age of eight in her home country and then again at 17. She became pregnant as a result of the second rape and gave birth to a baby who died at six months.

The detention custody officers involved in the incident work for Serco, a Home Office subcontractor, and were trying to hand her over to escorts who would have put her on the charter flight.

The judge said: “She was in my view clearly a vulnerable lady at the time of this incident. I found her account was genuine.”

An expert report on the case said the woman was frightened and trying to argue her case. The report found that the force used against her was not “necessary, reasonable or proportionate”.

Karen Doyle, of Movement For Justice, said: “This verdict is a damning indictment of Serco, Yarl’s Wood and the Home Office as well as the practice of charter flight removals. This verdict should be the thing that shuts down Yarl’s Wood and stops charter flights.”

Emma Ginn, director of the detention charity Medical Justice, said: “The Home Office is clearly still outsourcing abuse. For over a decade our volunteer doctors have documented injuries sustained by immigration detainees at the hands of violent guards, including fractured facial bones needing reconstructive surgery.”

Steve Hewer, Serco’s contract director at Yarl’s Wood, said: “We are confident that our staff acted appropriately under the policies and procedures governing the use of force in Yarl’s Wood immigration removal centre and we stand by their actions.”

The Labour MP Jess Phillips was in court to support the woman and welcomed the verdict. She said: “The judge’s ruling is a damning indictment of the system. The detention of women at Yarl’s Wood has to end, especially of vulnerable women.”

The Home Office declined to comment.