The Metropolitan police has agreed to apologise and pay a six-figure settlement to a man who required emergency brain surgery after being hit with a police baton during a university tuition fee protest in 2010.
Alfie Meadows, then a 20-year-old philosophy student at Middlesex University, was hit in the head during a protest against a tripling of tuition fees and suffered brain injuries, more than 100 staples and was left with extensive scarring.
Following the protests, Meadows was arrested and charged three times with violent conduct, but was unanimously acquitted in 2013.
He sued the Metropolitan police in 2013, seeking damages including aggravated damages and punitive damages for assault, battery, false imprisonment and breach of his human rights.
The case was adjourned until 2019 pending an investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC). This summer the case was closed and Meadows received a six-figure settlement from the Metropolitan police.
In a letter seen by the Guardian, Inspector Andy O'Donnell, from the Metropolitan police's Professional Standards Unit, told Mr Meadows: “On behalf of the Metropolitan police we apologise for the serious injury you have suffered.”
The court found that Meadows was protesting peacefully and did not behave aggressively towards any officers, and that the baton attack which nearly killed him was dangerous and unjustified.
In 2019, Detective Inspector Mark Alston of the City of London police was cleared of using unreasonable force against Mr Meadows at a misconduct hearing. The hearing panel concluded that the person who punched Mr Meadows was an unidentified Metropolitan police officer.
“I am sincerely disappointed that despite a thorough investigation, the officer who struck you has not come forward, been identified or held accountable for his actions,” O'Donnell said in the letter.
Mr Meadows' lawyer, Daniel Lemberger Cooper, said: “The Metropolitan police have finally apologised and agreed to pay Alfie substantial compensation for the life-changing impact that the actions of its officers on that day have had on him.”
Speaking about the impact the baton attack had had on Meadows, his lawyer said: “The emergency life-saving brain surgery and the ongoing trauma from the assault have had a severe impact on Alfie's studies, work and mental wellbeing.”
“The impact is compounded by the length of time it has taken to get to this point – he has faced numerous prosecutions, endured a lengthy investigation by the IOPC, a judicial review by the City of London Police which sought to block his police misconduct proceedings, and the litigation itself.”
Responding to the Metropolitan police's apology, Mr Meadows said: “In 2010 the coalition government turned to the police to violently put down resistance to its austerity measures. I would have joined the likes of Kevin Gately, Blair Peach and Ian Tomlinson who were killed by riot police at protests or in police custody, including Brian Douglas, who died after being hit over the head with a baton by a police officer.”
“After I was seriously injured by a police officer, the entire police force came together to blame and criminalize me, defend the officers, and delay and deny accountability.
“Given recent reports that the Metropolitan police is systematically racist, misogynistic, homophobic and corrupt, it is hard to believe that the police continue to take public money and abuse people. Yet the current government's response has been to give the Metropolitan police even more draconian powers to crack down on protests. Without fundamental change, police abuse will continue unabated.”
At Alston's misconduct hearing in 2019, Meadows said the beatings with the baton caused him “excruciating pain.”
“The baton was swung from high to low, straight towards my head. I instinctively turned around because I thought it was going to hit me, but the moment I turned around the baton hit me,” he told the hearing.
“I was hit in the upper right corner of my head and it was incredibly hard and painful. I saw a flash of light and it was the most painful thing I've ever experienced.”
A Metropolitan police spokesman said: “Following a complaint made by Alfie Meadows in August 2020, the Metropolitan police apologised and resolved the civil claim in June.”
A spokesman said the Metropolitan police accepted Mr Meadows was “peacefully protesting and the use of force against him was unjustified”.
“Between 2010 and 2019 there were numerous investigations and proceedings, including criminal proceedings and an independent investigation by what was then the IPCC. [Independent Police Complaints Commission]a misconduct hearing was held, but no one was able to identify the officer in question.”
