Man says he was ‘swung around garden’ by Gwynedd police officer

Footage of PC Richard Williams, 44, trying to arrest Steven Clark in a garden in Porthmadog, Gwynedd on May 10, 2023 was subsequently shared widely on social media.

While PC Williams was found not guilty of criminal charges of intentional strangulation and assault occasioning actual bodily harm, he is facing misconduct proceedings this week.

PC Williams is accused of gross misconduct by using “unreasonable force,” including by placing Mr Clark in a headlock, punching him nine times to the face, twisting handcuffs, and throwing him into a police van.

On the second day of the hearing on Tuesday (September 14), Mr Clark, 38, said police had come to arrest him after he had argued with his partner at her home that morning.

But he said a handcuff placed on his wrist was “too tight,” and aggravated a pre-existing arm injury he had sustained from a motorbike accident.

Mr Clark, who cried while giving evidence and spoke from behind a screen, said: “I couldn’t breathe… he was choking me and started punching me over and over and over and over… while the other officer was sat on my leg.

“My eyes stung. I couldn’t see anything. My face was thumping. My body felt like jelly. I remember shouting: ‘Help, my arm, my arm’.”

It took three officers and more than six minutes for handcuffs to be applied to both of Mr Clark’s wrists.

But he denied trying to resist arrest, and said he was then “chucked in a van”.

Sam Green KC, for PC Williams, asked Mr Clark if he was “off your face on speed and cannabis” that morning, which he denied.

He told Mr Green: “I didn’t know why I was getting arrested. I didn’t hurt nobody. We (he and his partner) just had an argument, like couples do.

“I’ve never hurt nobody in my entire life. I’m not a violent person.”

Mr Clark added that he was “slammed to the floor” by PC Williams, who then “swung me around the garden”.

Mr Green told him he had been “hell-bent” on stopping the other handcuff being applied, and was “actively and strenuously resisting” being put in the police van.

But Mr Clark said he was compliant with police, adding: “My eyes were sore, my head was banging, so I shouldn’t have been put in the van like that.”

Asked if he has made a claim for compensation from North Wales Police, Mr Clark replied: “I don’t know, sorry.”

PC Einir Williams, who also attended the scene to arrest Mr Clark, gave evidence after him on Tuesday.

She said she suspected Mr Clark was under the influence of a substance, and that he was “agitated, quite animated, and quite difficult”.

Mr Clark’s partner had told her she had “thought he was going to go for her,” she said.

After telling Mr Clark she needed to take his mobile phone, she added, he “pushed himself against me with enough force for us both to go over”.

“I was trying to control his legs, because he was actively kicking out,” she said.

“He was very tense. I couldn’t control him at all. He was very, very strong. His eyes appeared slightly glazed, and his pupils were small.”

During questioning from Mr Green, she told him she believed Mr Clark “intentionally pushed me over,” and had been “kicking out deliberately” at her.

Asked by Mr Green if PC Richard Williams did anything “unprofessional” or “untoward,” she answered: “No.”

The hearing, at North Wales Police’s Colwyn Bay headquarters, will resume on Wednesday, when PC Richard Williams is expected to give evidence.

It is scheduled to conclude on Friday.