Police use of CS spray to be investigated

Claims that CS spray was used by police officers to separate a mother from her baby and on two teenagers in a children's home are being investigated. The first incident is alleged to have happened in Middlesbrough when police officers accompanied a social worker who was taking the 10- month-old baby into care. It is claimed that the CS spray was used on the mother, who allegedly still had the baby in her arms and was resisting attempts to take the infant from her.

The second incident is alleged to have happened last Monday when police were called to a children's home in Middlesbrough where a 14-year-old boy and a 13-year-old girl were believed to have either harmed themselves or were threatening to harm themselves and had barricaded themselves into a room.