Met officer avoids jail after headbutting barman trying to enforce Covid rules
A Metropolitan Police officer who headbutted a barman trying to enforce Covid rules has been spared jail.
Pc Luke Wilson, 28, had been accused of breaching coronavirus restrictions by Johnny White in a central London cocktail bar last summer.
Westminster Magistrates Court heard that Wilson was breaking social distancing guidance at the time, since he and other fellow officers had moved between tables at the venue near Monument in the City of London.
The confrontation can be seen in video footage, which shows a man in a red shirt squaring up to a man dressed in black, before headbutting him. Punches are then thrown.
Wilson, who was off-duty, was previously found guilty of assaulting Mr White at the Be At One bar in King William Street on July 2, 2021.
On Tuesday he was handed a 10-week prison sentence, suspended for a year by District Judge Briony Clarke.
The Lewisham-based officer told Mr White that he and others in the group were police officers when the victim challenged them about social distancing, the court heard.
Mr White was left with a ‘reddening’ of the skin – which had subsided by the following day – from the headbutt, which the clip shows was followed by punches being thrown.
Wilson still claims his innocence but was remorseful for breaching Covid rules, the court heard.
Judge Clarke also ordered Wilson, of Gravesend, Kent, to carry out 80 hours of unpaid work and pay £200 in compensation to the victim, as well as £775 in court costs and a £128 victim surcharge.
Passing sentence, she said anyone who saw CCTV footage of the incident, played during the trial, would have been ‘shocked’.
Tom Bushnell, representing Wilson, claimed that the assault was ‘out of character’ and a ‘moment of madness’, adding that it ‘pales’ in comparison with his ‘brilliant career’ as a police officer.
The Metropolitan Police said Wilson had remained on restricted duties since his conviction and misconduct proceedings would take place as soon as possible.
Chief Superintendent Trevor Lawry, in charge of policing for Lewisham, Bexley and Greenwich, said: ‘Whether on or off duty, police officers are expected to uphold the high standards we expect as an organisation.
‘However, Pc Wilson’s behaviour fell far below this and it is right that following a police investigation he has had to face up to his actions in court.’
The incident is the latest in a series of embarrassing headlines about the conduct of Met Police officers, who have come under increasing scrutiny after a serving member of the force kidnapped, raped and murdered Sarah Everard in a case that shocked the country.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.
MORE : Two police officers who strip-searched black schoolgirl taken off frontline duties