Man 'lied' about police assault

A MAN who claims he was kicked, punched and racially abused by Metropolitan Police officers as a 12-year-old schoolboy was accused yesterday of "indulging in an orgy of lies and distortions" to earn himself "a fast buck".

Counsel for the police alleged in the High Court that Jermaine Jauvel, now 23, was "an antisocial man, a manipulative man, a scheming man, a dishonest man". Mr Jauvel, a musician who lives in Walworth, south London, is suing the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Paul Condon, for damages arising from his arrest and prosecution for assaulting a police officer in March 1987.

He told Mr Justice Popplewell on Wednesday that he was kicked in the face and dropped on the ground by officers during an altercation with a group of schoolchildren at the Riverdale shopping centre in Lewisham, south London.

But yesterday John Beggs, counsel for the police, alleged he had launched the proceedings "in the interests of one thing only, your bank balance".

"Did someone suggest to you that suing the Met was a good idea?" he asked.

"You have made a series of outrageous allegations against decent police officers.

"You are deliberately playing the race card - you thought that the more serious the allegations, the more likely it would be that the Metropolitan Police, stung by the Lawrence inquiry, would pay up."

Mr Jauvel denied that he had gone to the shopping centre that afternoon because of rumours that girls from rival local schools were planning a fight.

He also denied that a red bag, in which police found a six-inch bladed knife, belonged to him, although he acknowledged that he had been carrying a "strikingly similar" bag.

Asked about the allegation that he was punched in the face, Mr Jauvel said he could not remember where the blow landed. "You were not punched at all; you are making it up as you go along," said Mr Beggs.

The case continues today.