Roxanne Beaven (pictured) was arrested after telling an off-duty policeman to 'f*** off' when he asked her to stop swearing at a primary school

A mother is outraged she has been arrested by an off-duty police officer who overheard her swearing in the school playground.

Roxanne Beaven, 24, was chatting to other mothers when the police officer dropped off his own kids at Gray's Farm Primary Academy, Orpington, Kent.

He heard her use a profanity and asked her to mind her language. A few minutes later, as he walked back through the playground, he threatened to arrest her if she swore again.

She did. She told him to 'f*** off'. And then, she says, he then grabbed her arm and tried to wrestle her to the ground.

The mother-of-three, who was with her two-year-old twin sons Archie and George Lugg, said she did not believe the man was a police officer at first.

'I admittedly told him to f*** off at first because I didn't know him from Adam.

'He has bruised my arm. It's disgusting what he has done to me. It's so sore, it really hurts. I ran into the school and burst out crying.'

Ms Beaven, of Orpington, who has another son, five-year-old Tommy Duffell and lives with her partner Charlie Lugg, has made a formal complaint against the officer.

She added: 'I know I shouldn't have been using that language outside the school but the way he reacted was out of order.

'The word was used in conversation. It was not directed at him.

'He was so aggressive. He was off-duty. To me, that is a parent attacking another parent.'

Metropolitan Police officers were eventually called to the school at 9am and Ms Beaven was arrested for a public order offence.

A 45-year-old woman who tried to pull the police officer away and knocked off his glasses was arrested for common assault.

Both were taken to a south London police station and issued with a caution after admitting the offences.

Dawn Cleary, of St Paul's Wood Hill, stood talking to Ms Beaven after dropping her own children off at the school.

Ms Beaven, a mother-of-three, claims she was left with a bruise on her arm following the arrest

Ms Beaven (pictured) has now made a formal complaint against the officer

The 37-year-old said: 'Everyone swears. All he had to do was say: "Tone your language down a little bit." It just went from one extreme to another.

'It was really horrible to stand there and watch. He blew it completely out of proportion.'

Mother-of-two Catherine Oates, of St Mary Cray, also saw the commotion.

The 30-year-old said: 'He looked like he was trying to get her on the floor.

Ms Beaven was dropping her children off at Gray's Farm Primary Academy (pictured), in Kent, when the incident occurred

'Roxanne's twin boys started screaming their heads off. We had no way of knowing he was really a police officer.

'I was disgusted. To those little boys, it looked like he was attacking their mum.'

An Essex Police spokesman said: 'We can confirm we have received a complaint about an officer and as this matter is being investigated we cannot comment further at this stage.'