Jailed for six months after Mr Small was left bleeding and with spinal swelling

Southwark Crown Court heard he also kneed him with 'high degree of force'

He held Mr Small in headlock, causing him to choke, and punched him in face

Matthew Harries, 36, (pictured outside Southwark Crown Court) has been jailed for six months for the ‘totally unwarranted’ attack on motorist Justin Small

A police officer who launched a ‘totally unwarranted’ attack on an innocent motorist by getting him into a headlock and punching him in the face has been jailed.

Matthew Harries, 36, stopped Justin Small on suspicion of possessing drugs outside Nando's restaurant in Acton, West London.

He held Mr Small in a headlock, causing him to choke, punched him in the face and then kneed him using a ‘high degree of force’, Southwark Crown Court heard.

Mr Small was left bleeding with swollen and bruised eyelids and swelling to the spine after the attack on April 5 last year.

Harries later claimed Mr Small was holding his car keys in a clenched fist and he believed they could have been used as a weapon against him.

He said the ‘worst case scenario was death with one hit’.

However, a jury rejected his self-defence claim and found the police constable guilty of one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm after four and half hours of deliberation.

The judge, Mr Recorder Peter Kyte QC, told him: ‘You are a 36-year-old man now, you are married to a fellow police officer and you have a very young baby.

‘In your favour is the fact that this is your first criminal offence.

‘I also give you due credit for the fact that it seems that you have otherwise been a responsible and conscientious police officer of a period of 11 years.

‘I have read and I am impressed by documents which include testimonials from 11 police officers and three of your personal friends.

‘I note and take into account also the fact that there are no less than five commendations and obviously all that counts in your favour.'

However, the judge also told Harries that the 'full picture' to be taken into consideration included previous complaints made by members of the public about his conduct.

He told Harries: ‘It is pretty insignificant by comparison and your counsel has referred to those other matters as "low level" and they may well come into that category but the full picture includes a number of complaints from members of the public about incivility, intolerance and impoliteness.

‘The most important aspect of this is the fact that, at the material time, you were a police officer in uniform and this was, in my view, a nasty assault that the jury rightly convicted you of.

‘It was an unprovoked attack on a civilian who has consequently "lost his faith in the police".

‘I wholly reject your claim in evidence that at the relevant time Mr Small was armed with a car key which you regarded as a weapon.

The attack occurred in the car park of the Nandos restaurant in Acton, west London (pictured), in April last year

‘This in my view was an invention of yours in order to seek to justify your actions as amounting to self-defence.

‘It is you who placed his head in a headlock, as a consequence to which he started to choke and was unable to speak, according to his evidence.

‘He then went to the ground, your colleague was on top of him at this point.

‘According to the complainant, at this point one hand cuff at least had been applied to Mr Small and then you chose to punch him with full force to the face.

‘Again, I use his words: "This was a totally unwarranted attack".

‘Not content with that, you then kneed him to the same general area with what he described as a high degree of force.'

The court heard how Mr Small was left nauseous and dizzy after the attack.

‘In all the circumstances it would be wholly inappropriate of me not to mark it with a sentence of immediate custody - it is quite unavoidable,’ Mr Kyte QC said.

Harries was ordered to serve a six-month sentence and pay an £80 victim surcharge.

A jury at Southwark Crown Court (pictured) found the officer, 36, guilty after four and half hours of deliberation

‘That, in my view, is the least sentence I can properly impose,’ the judge concluded.

The attack happened after Mr Small stopped to use the toilet at the Royal Leisure Park in Acton before driving home to Sussex.

He found the toilet was busy during his visit at around 7.30pm and instead decided to use the corner of the car park.

Harries then pulled up alongside him as he jogged back to his car and asked if he had been drinking.

It would be wholly inappropriate of me not to mark it with a sentence of immediate custody - it is quite unavoidable. Mr Recorder Peter Kyte QC

The officer went on to suggest that Mr Small was slurring his words and that his pupils were dilated, jurors heard.

The court heard that the officer then attempted to manhandle Mr Small, who sought to diffuse the situation by asking: 'Why are you being so aggressive?.’

After assaulting the ‘wholly innocent’ victim, Harries then bundled Mr Small into the police car and took him to Acton Police Station.

When Harries was booking him in, Mr Small said he overheard Harries saying he could not remember what had happened.

Mr Small was charged with obstructing a police officer and did not see a doctor until 3am.

Described in court as ‘sick and emotional’, Mr Small agreed to a caution at the police station - requiring an admission of guilt - so that he could go home.

The caution was later expunged and the decision to prosecute Harries was made following an investigation.

Harries accepted he had made ‘two rapid heel palm strikes’ to Mr Small’s biceps to try to get him to release the keys which he claims he was still holding.

Harries held Mr Small in a headlock, causing him to choke, punched him in the face and then kneed him using a ‘high degree of force’, Southwark Crown Court heard. The judge told him the sentence was 'quite unavoidable'

Harries, of Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, was convicted by the jury after denying one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

He had been placed on restricted duties pending the outcome of the trial.

DPS Detective Chief Superintendent Alaric Bonthron said: ‘Where an officer’s behaviour falls short of the very high standards that we and the public expect of them then it is only right that they are held to account for their actions.

‘The actions of one officer abusing his position in this way can cast a shadow over the thousands of officers who are on duty right now demonstrating bravery, compassion, integrity and professionalism.