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'I was just manhandled and dragged across the floor'
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A Wiltshire policeman convicted of assaulting a woman in custody has been cleared on appeal.
Sgt Mark Andrews, of Wiltshire Police, was filmed dragging Pamela Somerville through Melksham police station in July 2008.
The officer was found guilty of causing her actual bodily harm and jailed for six months in September.
Sgt Andrews spent six days in prison, but was released on bail pending the appeal at Oxford Crown Court.
The appeal judge, Mr Justice Bean, said after the four-day hearing he was satisfied that Sgt Andrews did not intend to throw Ms Somerville into the cell and that injuries she suffered were probably caused by the door frame.
She had been arrested for failing to take a breath test but was never prosecuted.
Sgt Andrews told the appeal hearing that Ms Somerville, 59, was the most unpredictable prisoner he had ever come across and that she had been abusive to both him and his colleagues.
The court was shown CCTV footage in which he is seen throwing her on to the cell floor. A minute later she staggers to her feet, with injuries to her face and eye.
Mark Andrews spent six days in jail after being convicted
Sgt Andrews told the court: "I don't think I did anything wrong.
"She had been holding on to the cell door frame when she suddenly let go.
"It was like pulling a cork out of a bottle."
Ms Somerville was arrested after she was found asleep in her car near her Colerne home and had been detained for failing to provide a sample for a breath test.
She denied any wrongdoing and the charges against her were later dropped due to insufficient evidence.
Sgt Andrews' barrister Jeremy Barton had put it to her at the appeal court that she had been so drunk on vodka the night the incident happened that she was an unreliable witness.
Mr Barton also suggested that she had refused to take a breath test because she knew how drunk she was.
Ms Somerville denied both of these claims.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
'I was just manhandled and dragged across the floor'
Related stories
A Wiltshire policeman convicted of assaulting a woman in custody has been cleared on appeal.
Sgt Mark Andrews, of Wiltshire Police, was filmed dragging Pamela Somerville through Melksham police station in July 2008.
The officer was found guilty of causing her actual bodily harm and jailed for six months in September.
Sgt Andrews spent six days in prison, but was released on bail pending the appeal at Oxford Crown Court.
“It was like pulling a cork out of a bottle”
Sgt Mark Andrews She had been arrested for failing to take a breath test but was never prosecuted.
Sgt Andrews told the appeal hearing that Ms Somerville, 59, was the most unpredictable prisoner he had ever come across and that she had been abusive to both him and his colleagues.
The court was shown CCTV footage in which he is seen throwing her on to the cell floor. A minute later she staggers to her feet, with injuries to her face and eye.
Mark Andrews spent six days in jail after being convicted Sgt Andrews told the court: "I don't think I did anything wrong.
"She had been holding on to the cell door frame when she suddenly let go.
"It was like pulling a cork out of a bottle."
Ms Somerville was arrested after she was found asleep in her car near her Colerne home and had been detained for failing to provide a sample for a breath test.
She denied any wrongdoing and the charges against her were later dropped due to insufficient evidence.
Sgt Andrews' barrister Jeremy Barton had put it to her at the appeal court that she had been so drunk on vodka the night the incident happened that she was an unreliable witness.
Mr Barton also suggested that she had refused to take a breath test because she knew how drunk she was.
Ms Somerville denied both of these claims.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.