Scores of complaints against police in terror suspect assault

Police officers who subjected a British Muslim to a "prolonged and violent series of gratuitous assaults" were involved in dozens of other complaints involving black or Asian men.

The Metropolitan Police agreed to pay terror suspect Babar Ahmad £60,000 damages after admitting in the High Court this week that the arresting officers from the territorial support group subjected him to "gross brutality".

Today, a spokesman for the force confirmed that all six officers involved in the Ahmad assault were the subject of at least 77 complaints since 1992.

"A number of these unsubstantiated complaints would have invariably been referred to the PCA (Police Complaints Authority) or IPCC (Independent Police Complaints Commission) but all except for one were unsubstantiated," the spokesman said.

That complaint "led to words of advice in respect of a complaint relating to an unlawful search", he said.

The other complaints were either not investigated - because the complainant did not assist the investigation or because the complaint was withdrawn; informally resolved without the need for an investigation; or investigated but found to be unsubstantiated.

But the force could not confirm reports that court documents obtained by the Guardian newspaper showed that four of the officers who carried out the raid on Ahmad's home had 60 allegations of assault against them - of which at least 37 were made by black or Asian men.

The documents also showed one of the officers had 26 separate allegations of assault against him - 17 against black or Asian men, reports said.

Mr Ahmad, a 34-year-old IT support analyst, was assaulted during a dawn arrest at his home in Tooting, south-west London, in December 2003.

Earlier this week, the court heard Mr Ahmad was never charged with any offences arising out of his arrest and one of the unnamed officers allegedly involved is to face criminal proceedings.

Met Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson demanded an urgent independent inquiry into why the officers refused to give evidence to the High Court into the allegations of abuse in Mr Ahmad's case.

The collapse of the police defence to the civil action for personal injury damages brought by Mr Ahmad led to immediate calls for an inquiry into what his family claimed was a cover-up to protect the officers involved.

Mr Ahmad's brother-in-law, Fahad Ahmad, said: "This abuse took place not in Guantanamo Bay or a secret torture chamber but in Tooting, south London."