A COP has been fired for lying about what happened the night a fellow officer pushed a teenager through a shop window in Bromley.



The police constable, who was part of the Met’s territorial support group at the time of the incident, was found to have dishonestly written a false statement.

He was dismissed following a gross misconduct hearing.



The false statement relates to an incident in Bromley High Street on February 27, 2010, for which PC Marcus Ballard was found guilty of assaulting Onyeka Obi.

Ballard pushed the 16-year-old backwards resulting in him falling through a shop window.

The misconduct panel heard the 48-year-old officer, now based at Heathrow, falsified his statement by describing seeing Mr Obi’s right arm raise towards PC Ballard’s head in support of the account PC Ballard had given.

CCTV footage gathered during the investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission showed Mr Obi had his hands in his pockets and was not acting in a threatening manner when he was approached by the police.

Commissioner Mike Franklin said: “At the time of the assault Mr Obi was only 16-years-old.

“The courage he has shown providing evidence at the criminal trial and being requested to take part in this separate gross misconduct hearing should not be underestimated.

“There cannot be any place for dishonest officers within the Metropolitan Police Service and this was a deliberate lie intended to support the fictitious account provided by PC Ballard.

“It is right this officer has been dismissed without notice.”

Ballard was sentenced to 150 hours unpaid work and made to pay £500 in court costs and £500 in compensation to the victim at City of Westminster Magistrates' Court on March 18 last year.



The man, who was 29 at the time, was convicted of one charge relating to him pushing the boy backwards into the window but cleared of another, which referred to him grabbing the teen's right arm.