Met ordered to pay thousands in compensation after teen subjected to 'racist humiliation'

Met payout: the order was made by a High Court judge
PA
Robin de Peyer2 October 2015

Scotland Yard was today ordered to pay thousands of pounds in damages to two men, one of whom was subjected to racist abuse by officers after the pair were stopped as teenagers.

Basil Khan and Omar Mohidin were awarded £11,950 and £2,500 respectively by a High Court judge.

Khan and Mohidin were 16 when they were stopped in Edgware Road in June 2007 by officers who thought that some of their group had been making gestures or mouthing obscenities.

Mohidin was in the police van for five minutes while Khan was arrested, handcuffed and detained for nearly 20 hours.

At a hearing at London's High Court in June, Khan claimed that he was wrongfully arrested, assaulted and sworn at, and strip searched. He said he had suffered post-traumatic stress disorder for about a year.

Mohidin alleged that he was assaulted by an officer who also swore at him and abused him verbally. He said he had suffered acute stress disorder for four weeks.

The officers said that Khan was arrested after he had approached the van and made threats but he was not assaulted, although he was required to kneel in handcuffs because of his "violent conduct".

Awarding the complainants damages, Mr Justice Gilbart said that Khan had endured a wrongful arrest, a blow with some abuse from one officer and a sustained assault from another, which was accompanied by racist abuse.

He said that Mohidin was forced into the van and falsely imprisoned for a few minutes, during which he was subjected to "racist humiliation", but he had not suffered acute stress disorder at any stage. Mohidin found the officer's conduct distressing and frightening but his injury consisted, at most, of feeling upset for a few days.

The judge dismissed a damages claim for false imprisonment, assault and race discrimination brought by a third man, Ahmed Hegazy.

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