A POLICE misconduct hearing has heard how a 17-year-old girl was left with severe headaches and unable to sleep after being struck in the head by a police officer.

The hearing, held in Chelmsford on January 11, has been called to assess whether the behaviour of now-former Essex Police officer Toby Bailey amounted to gross misconduct after he struck the girl with his elbow while she was handcuffed. The girl, referred to as Miss A has been detained under the Mental Health Act and taken to hospital by police officers because she had shown signs of being suicidal.

PC Bailey, who resigned from Essex Police two weeks ago, claimed he was acting in self-defence when he delivered a strike to Miss A's temple with his elbow saying it was because she was trying to bite him having become "verbally aggressive".

The hearing on Thursday, held by Legally Qualified Chair Andrew Hearn, was called to determine whether PC Bailey had "failed to meet the professional standards required of a police officer".

PC Bailey, who resigned from Essex Police on January 4, does not deny delivering the blow to Miss A. When the incident occurred, Miss A was a 'child in care' and police officers in attendance knew her, although PC Bailey did not, and she had been identified as a vulnerable person.

At around 10.45pm on May 17, 2022 PC Bailey first interacted with Miss A in the waiting area of Basildon University Hospital's A&E department. Earlier in the day, Miss A had been escorted to the hospital by Essex Police officers after expressing suicidal thoughts while being held in custody and was subsequently detained under Section 136 of the Mental Health Act, which gives police emergency powers to safeguard a person who may be a risk to themselves or the public.

However, when Miss A refused to move from the public A&E waiting area to a small, private room designated for Section 136 admissions and became "irate and unhappy", a call for assistance was made by attending officer PC Chloe Layley.

PC Layley said Miss A had been acting towards her in a way which was "threatening and unpleasant" and that she felt "uneasy and unsafe" due to her behaviour.

PC Bailey was less than an hour into his shift, which had started at around 10pm that evening, and said he was "broadly aware" of the situation involving a vulnerable 17-year-old female. He attended the scene with police sergeant Amy Butler, who had encountered Miss A previously and believed she had "quite a good rapport" with her.

However, presenting a witness statement to those at the hearing, PS Butler said she had warned PC Bailey during the drive to the hospital of Miss A being "very anti-police", and that she had 'verbally assaulted and spat at officers previously'.

Evidence in the form of body-worn footage taken from PC Layley was played at the hearing and shows PC Bailey placing handcuffs on Miss A's wrists before he and PS Butler physically escorted her to the designated 136 room, each holding one of her arms.

Once inside the 136 room, PC Bailey and PS Butler sit Miss A down on a chair, with PC Bailey on her left-hand side and PS Butler on her right. After about 25 seconds, during which Miss A tries to free herself from the officers' grip, PC Bailey strikes her across the left side of her face with his elbow.

Although PC Bailey maintains that he acted out of self-defence and that he was only attempting to double-lock the handcuffs placed on Miss A to prevent them from becoming tighter, the footage showed that at no point did PC Bailey explain to Miss A what he was doing and he is only heard telling her to "relax". Miss A had pulled her arms away from Bailey with her head moving slightly towards him, which is when she was struck.

In the video, Miss A can then be seen turning towards PS Butler and asking"Is he allowed to do that?" to which PS Butler responds with words to the effect of "Yes, because you were going for him".

PS Butler told the hearing that after Miss had been struck she had been upset, but then "calmed down quite significantly".

But in a recorded police interview from 2022, Miss A said that at no point was she "trying to attack" PC Bailey or the other three attending police officers and had been terrified for her own safety.

She said: "I was so scared… I thought he would beat the s*** out of me, that's how frightened I was.

"I thought no one would believe me, and felt very alone in that situation. I remember feeling very tiny, and didn't trust anyone after that."

Miss A said that, once she was approached by PC Bailey she "didn't feel safe" in his presence.

"I was trying to survive my own mind at the time," she said; "but having a grown man give me more reasons to want to die… was not something I needed.

"I was so angry and sad… I just wanted someone in uniform to be on my side."

After the strike PC Bailey wrote an incident report, logged at around 12.25am on May 18, that the elbow strike he had dealt to Miss A had only used approximately "40 per cent effort". However, Miss A complained of experiencing painful headaches for a number of days following the incident and being unable to sleep.

Giving a witness statement via video link, PC Layley, said that despite Miss A "acting physically" towards her earlier in the evening by putting her hands near her face, the officer "didn't see her specifically attempt to bite" PC Bailey and that there was no indication that she was intending to act violently.

However, in their witness statements, both PC Layley and PS Butler said that at the time of the incident they "didn't think anything of" Bailey's use of force against Miss A or that it was excessive.

PC Layley said she "wasn't shocked" that PC Bailey had struck Miss A "to pre-emptively prevent [an assault] from happening". While PC Butler said that "nothing about the use of force against Miss A made me think that it should not have happened".

PC Clare Burwood, who was also present at the incident and who had only become a police officer six weeks prior, said that although she could not remember the exact moment PC Bailey Struck Miss A, she "wouldn't have been surprised if there had been an assault on an officer" owing to Miss A's "angry, upset and emotional" state.

The hearing continues and is due to resume on January 29, with a panel of three experts on the use of force.