A FORMER police officer has been sentenced for common assault after using ‘inappropriate force’ against a teenager in Rugby.
PC Laura Lawson, a West Mercia Police officer who had been based in Warwickshire, was handed a three month custodial sentence suspended for 12 months and a three month curfew order, and was made to pay costs, after she pleaded guilty to the offence at Worcester Crown Court.
In April last year Lawson attended a disturbance in Avocet Close, Rugby, where she used force against a 17-year-old boy and two others.
The incident was investigated before the Crown Prosecution Service authorised a summons against the officer.
Assistant Chief Constable Martin Evans of West Mercia Police said: “A serving police officer receiving a criminal conviction for assault brings discredit on the force and is completely unacceptable when we are responsible for protecting the public from harm.
“As soon as we became aware of the complaint, we referred it to the Independent Office for Police Conduct, which carried out a thorough investigation.”
Lawson resigned from the force following the case. The force will now decide whether the former officer should face misconduct proceedings.
