Police brutality case dropped (From Barry And District News)

Police brutality case dropped

A BARRY mum has been told her case against Vale police, whom she claimed brutalised her mentally ill son, will be dropped.

Terry Ann Hollinshead helps her 30-year-old son Craig battle with paranoid schizophrenia.

Terry Ann, 49, said: "Craig has voices telling him to kill himself. Twice he's smashed his car into a wall because they told him to."

On October 14 last year, the voices told Craig to destroy his Dock View Road flat. When police arrived he lashed out at a female officer.

His mum added: "He admits punching her, but in his state he was convinced she had a knife. He was protecting himself.

"The officers called for reinforcements and wrestled him to the floor. Craig remembers them kicking him and calling him racially offensive names, because he's half-cast."

When Terry Ann saw Craig after the arrest, she was shocked. She recalls: "He had black eyes, bruises over his ribs and back, gravel marks where they'd dragged him to the van, and cuts from the cuffs.

"I wanted justice. You don't beat up a person with a mental illness."

She complained to the police, but recently received a letter from the Crown Prosecution Service saying there was insufficient evidence for the case to go ahead.

The matter is still being looked into by the police. Divisional Commander Superintendent Josh Jones said: "Mr Hollinshead was convicted of a vicious and totally unprovoked assault on a female officer that has left her permanently scarred.

The complaint made on his behalf is still subject to an investigation. It would be inappropriate to comment further at this time."

l Craig pleaded guilty to actual bodily harm when he appeared in court on December 15. He was given a six-month sentence in Bridgend prison and was released in May.