WANSTEAD: Pensioner cuffed for taking paper from bin

2:07pm Wednesday 27th August 2008

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A PENSIONER who took an old newspaper from a recycling bin was handcuffed over the bonnet of his car by four police officers after they ordered him to put it back.

Denis O’Keefe, 76, of Grosvenor Road in Wanstead, was left with bloodied wrists and had to be treated by paramedics for shock after he refused to back down.

He was dropping off a dozen old papers at the bin in Wanstead High Street at 11am on Tuesday, August 26, when one caught his eye and, as he reached to retrieve it, two PCSOs approached him.

He said: “A young cadet officer and his partner, a woman, ordered me to put the paper back and leave. They said it was against the law. The situation got completely out of control and they ordered me away from the bin, which they have no right to do.

“Three times he said ‘I’m ordering you to put the paper back and leave’, and I said ‘No, I haven’t done anything wrong’. He said ‘I’m going to call back up’.

“Then in about three minutes a police car pulled up with another two officers and they had a bit of a conflab and said ‘we’re thinking of charging you’ and I said ‘well do it and get it over with so I can go home’.

“I said ‘I’m going to get in my car and if you want any information about me you can get it from my car number plate’. They ran after me and as I got in the car they started pulling my arm. I said ‘I’ve done nothing wrong’.

“One of them pulled me out of the car and the other one came around and pulled my other arm and dragged me around to the front of the car, bent me over the bonnet of the car and put the manacles on.”

The officers stopped the passing traffic and, in front of dozens of amazed shoppers, walked Mr O’Keefe back across the road and started questioning him.

He said: “I had an asthma attack coming on and I was gasping for air and I said ‘I need my inhaler from the car’ and they said ‘we’ll get it in a moment’.

I took about 12 puffs, one after another. They said ‘you’re in a bad way mate, we’ll have to call an ambulance’. I said I just wanted to go home but they held my arms until the ambulance came.

After 45 minutes being treated in the ambulance Mr O’Keefe was released and he now plans to press charges against the officers involved, but does not know who they are. He said: “I asked for their names but they just started talking about something else and brushed it aside.

“They’re just going around looking for trouble, picking on innocent people.

“If I mugged an old lady I would expect everything I got but I did nothing wrong. They didn’t even say I had stolen the paper. I had put 15 papers in there and taken one out.”

A spokeswoman for Ilford Police said: “The matter is being investigated and we will not be commenting on this at present.”