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This is the dramatic moment a police officer sends a naked suspect crashing to the floor with his Taser - after he threw his dirty underpants at him.

PC Lee Birch, 30, zapped Daniel Dove with the 50,000-volt weapon after the well-worn boxers were flicked into his face.

The Chief Constable of Wilshire Police had tried to block the footage being made public after PC Birch was acquitted of assault.

But last night it was leaked to ITV News.

Mr Dove, 23, had been arrested for being drunk and disorderly outside a nightclub and was ordered to strip naked for a search once inside a police cell.

But he felt "humiliated" at the way he was being treated and hurled his boxers in a "split second" fit of temper.

PC Birch, who responded by immediately drawing his Taser, was charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm and misconduct in public office.

A jury took just 60 minutes to acquit the Wiltshire police officer on both charges at Bristol Crown Court following a trial.

During the CCTV recording PC Birch can be seen to unclip his Taser from his holster within seconds of entering the cell.

He then continues to conceal it behind his back throughout the strip search before deploying it - holding the trigger for seven seconds.

Mr Dove crashes to the ground where PC Birch grabs the boxers and throws them at the wall, before shouting "you have assaulted me, don't do that again".

During the week-long trial Mr Dove told the court he was compliant throughout his arrest and gave PC Birch no reason to open fire.

He said: "I was compliant up until a point when I felt like I was being humiliated, I was stripped completely naked and put on my knees with hand cuffs on.

"PC Birch asked me to get naked in a strip search, which I did.

"You feel quite embarrassed, when I took them off it was a split second thing, I did it because I was annoyed."

He added: "I was not aware he had a Taser, he didn't tell me he had it or that he intended to use it.

"As soon as I flicked my pants at him he pulled his arm up from behind his back and shot me with it.

"He has not pulled it from a holster and said 'I will shoot you', he has just pulled it from behind his back and shot me.

"I didn't have any time to react or move, by the time I saw it.

"I don't know why he used it, I couldn't exactly move because there were three guys there so for him to use that on me was a bit irrational."

The trial heard how Dove was arrested in the early hours of December 23 2012 outside a nightclub in Trowbridge, Wilts., after clashing with another man.

Bouncers called police when he refused to cooperate and he was detained for being drunk and disorderly.

During the arrest he allegedly tried to punch PC Birch and kneed his colleague PC Reed in the groin.

Dove was then taken into custody at Melksham where he was escorted to a cell by PC Birch and two other officers to be searched.

The court heard how PC Birch unclipped his Taser from his holster within seconds of entering the cell with the two others and held it behind his back throughout.

The jury saw CCTV footage of Dove, who admitted drinking four pints of Fosters and two Jagerbombs, struggling with PC Birch.

PC Birch told the court he was "not looking for an excuse to use the Taser" and said he believed it was "reasonable and proportionate and not motivated by anger or malice".

He now faces an internal inquiry and investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission.