A man who fell from a building after being tasered by a Metropolitan Police officer is now confined to a wheelchair, a jury at Southwark Crown Court has been told.
Leonard Sandiford was running from officers in Woodford Green, east London, when he reached a cul‑de‑sac and climbed onto an outbuilding during the early‑morning pursuit on 24 April 2022. Prosecutors say he fell from a height of around five to six feet after being tasered, suffering a catastrophic spinal cord injury that left him tetraplegic.
PC Liam Newman, 31, is on trial charged with grievous bodily harm. The officer had been responding with a colleague to reports of an attempted burglary at a bookmakers on Chigwell Road shortly before 5am.
Opening the case, prosecutor Irshad Sheikh told jurors that Mr Sandiford posed no threat at the time the Taser was discharged. “Mr Sandiford was simply running away. He was not a threat to either of the officers,” he said, arguing that the use of force was unreasonable and therefore unlawful.
The court heard that Newman had completed standard training for Taser deployment, but the prosecution maintains that firing the device in these circumstances amounted to excessive force.
The trial continues.
