Pc Stephen Evans, who works on the same police unit that jailed killer Wayne Couzens was on, has appeared at a conduct hearing accused of grabbing a 13-year-old boy by the throat
A Metropolitan Police officer in the same unit as where killer cop Wayne Couzens worked was “gobsmacked” after a boy he is accused of assaulting called him a “fat arse”, a misconduct hearing has heard.
Pc Stephen Evans allegedly grabbed the then-13-year-old by the throat after a disagreement during which the boy said “have a nice life, fat arse”. Pc Evans is based within the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Team, the same elite unit that Couzens was in when he raped and murdered Sarah Everard in 2021. The officer, who has previously worked at Downing Street, has denied grabbing the lad by the throat in November 2022.
The boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons and was referred to as Witness A, told a previous hearing that the officer had taken him “by the throat” and “thrown” him onto his back on a concrete driveway which had hurt the back of his head. Giving evidence to a hearing in west London on Thursday, Pc Evans said he was “completely shocked” at what the teenager had said to him. Recounting the incident, he said: “I grabbed him and said ‘You can’t say that to me, what have you done’, and I pointed at him.”
Pc Evans told the hearing he grabbed the boy by the lapels of his coat, rather than his throat. Ashraf Khan, representing Pc Evans, asked: “Emotionally, how were you feeling?” “I was gobsmacked,” the officer replied. Pc Evans said he told the boy, “You can’t say things like that to people.”
He added: “Being a police officer for over 20 years and when I was at Camden, I went to numerous incidents where there’d be road rage, where there’d be stabbings, where there’d be an assault and it would usually be someone has said or done something to the wrong person and you can get in trouble, don’t mean to but it can be just an offhand comment that pushes people over the edge.”
Asked whether he had grabbed the teenager by the throat and pushed him, the officer said he “couldn’t” do this as it was a cold November day and the boy was wearing a big coat with large lapels. Thom Dyke, a barrister representing the Metropolitan Police, asked: “Would you accept it’s part of a police officer’s role to be able to turn the other cheek and to be a professional in those situations and not overreact?”
Pc Evans replied: “Yes, you don’t want to overreact, you might want to advise but not overreact.” Mr Dyke continued: “I’m going to suggest the reason you grabbed him was because you lost your temper.”
“I was angry, I didn’t lose my temper,” the officer replied.
In submissions, Mr Dyke said: “This case really comes down to the comment made by Pc Evans in his evidence where he said you can make an offhand comment which pushes someone over the edge and that is what the appropriate authority say is what has happened in this case.”
“What happened here was a loss of temper and a loss of control, from an officer that is trained in de-escalating,” he added. Mr Khan told the panel that Pc Evans’ colleagues have said he has a “calm demeanor” and that grabbing the boy’s lapels was a “reasonable and proportionate” response.
Giving evidence on Wednesday, Witness A said: “He stood over me and leant down and was yelling at me for calling him a fat arse.” The teenager said that when he was on the ground, Pc Evans poked him “hard” with his finger around four or five times, which the officer has denied.
The hearing previously heard the incident lasted around 10 minutes and resulted in “no visible injuries” to the boy. If the panel finds the allegations to be true, Pc Evans will be found in breach of the Standards of Professional Behaviour.
The conduct would amount to gross misconduct and could justify his dismissal, the Met Police said. The panel heard Pc Evans has worked in the police force for 24 years and that his disciplinary record for his entire career was “clear”.
Couzens is serving a whole life sentence for the abduction, rape and murder of Ms Everard while off duty in March 2021.
The hearing continues.
