A police sergeant who kicked a 13-year-old girl’s head ‘like a football’ and pepper sprayed another vulnerable prisoner in the face through a hatch in his cell door should have been sacked, a tribunal ruled.
Sussex Police Sgt Ian Cheesman would have been dismissed from the force if he had not retired before a disciplinary hearing could find him guilty of gross misconduct.
Father-of-three Cheesman, 53, was spared jail earlier this year after a court heard he ‘toe-punted’ the teenage girl when he was a custody officer in Chichester in April 2021.
Four months earlier, in December 2020, while working at the custody suite in Worthing, Cheesman sprayed a mentally ill man twice with his Captor pepper spray.
The man, who can only be identified as Witness A, described Cheesman as a thug who seemed to take pleasure in his discomfort. He told a disciplinary panel ‘it just seemed personal.’
Police Sergeant Ian Cheesman, 53, shocked other officers as he was captured on CCTV footage kicking a child
A disciplinary hearing at Sussex Police headquarters in Lewes was shown CCTV from a camera inside the cell.
Barefoot Witness A could be seen wearing only his shorts with a t-shirt tied around his neck as a makeshift Covid facemask.
After removing the mattress and pillow from the cell, Cheesman returned and sprayed Witness A as he backed away from him.
The former sergeant accepted he did not give warnings before spraying the clearly distressed prisoner.
After banging on the cell door again with his head and bare feet, Cheesman spoke to Witness A before spraying him at close range, directly into his face through the open hatch.
Witness A said the second pepper spray made him feel like he could not take a breath.
‘I thought he was going to say something nice or apologise at the cell door. I was already choking from the first one.
‘He called me to the hatch and he sprayed me through the hole in the door. I felt violated. I couldn’t believe somebody could get off on that.
‘I felt like I couldn’t get any air down into my lungs. It stung my eyes. It was a nightmare.’
A judge ruled Cheesman had retaliated after being provoked by the teenager. He was given a 12 month community order with a requirement of 50 hours of unpaid work and was ordered to pay £625 costs and a £95 victim surcharge (stock image)
Witness A told the hearing he was suffering from PTSD, OCD and was extremely anxious about the pandemic. He was seen by a nurse at the police station.
‘My mental health at the time was horrendous. For somebody with OCD, Covid was very confusing. I couldn’t get to grips with it. It scared the life out of me.’
He told the hearing he was concerned about germs in the cell and officers not wearing masks.
‘I knew my hygiene bubble had been breached,’ he said.
‘He was using terms like “this is not a mental hospital” and “this is not a day centre,”‘ he said.
Witness A told the hearing his health was so bad he should have been sectioned under the mental health act.
He was released without charge after nine hours.
‘I just asked them to let me go home. I had been there for hours and hours,’ Witness A said.
‘It was an exercise in bullying and control, that’s what it felt like.
Cheesman retired in January after completing 30 years service with Sussex Police.
He described the situation as challenging and admitted he got it wrong.
The panel concluded Cheesman had not given any warnings before spraying Witness A and had not offered any advice or aftercare.
Chair of the disciplinary panel Harry Ireland told Cheesman his actions had not been justified.
‘You breached the professional standards amounting to gross misconduct,’ he said. ‘These were intentional and deliberate acts.
‘He was in a position of trust involving a vulnerable detainee.
‘We consider Cheesman would have been dismissed if he was still a serving officer.’
CCTV of Cheesman kicking a 13-year-old girl shocked other officers, a court heard.
He ‘toe-punted’ a the girl like a football and said ‘How do you like being kicked?’ at Chichester custody centre in West Sussex, during a 12-hour night shift on April 5-6 last year.
A judge ruled he had retaliated after being provoked by the teenager.
He was given a 12 month community order with a requirement of 50 hours of unpaid work and was ordered to pay £625 costs and a £95 victim surcharge.