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Diabetic suffering attack arrested and locked in cells because police thought he was drunk
Last updated at 01:07am on 18.03.08Police wrestled a man suffering from an attack linked to his diabetes to the ground because they thought he was drunk.
Peter Connor, 53, was experiencing a hypoglycaemic attack but was arrested by four officers and carted off to a police cell.
The retired engineer was charged with a public order offence and dragged through the courts for five months until the case was finally dropped as the prosecution accepted his version of events.
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Diabetic: Peter Connor was arrested and locked up after suffering a hypoglcaemic attack. He claims police mistook this for a public order offence
Today he had written to the Independent Police Complaints Commission to complain about the officers' conduct.
He said: "It is a great relief that the case has been dropped as it has been a great strain on me. But the fact is the case shouldn't have been brought in the first place.
"The way the police treated me is absolutely disgusting. I suffered a massive lump and grazes on my head during my arrest when the fact was I was not some kind of a drunken yob but a man who was very seriously ill."
Earlier this month Mr Connor said he was lucky to be alive after the blunder but was relieved his ordeal was finally over.
He said: "I am lucky that my case was to have been heard in a Magistrates' Court and not a Coroner's Court.
"The situation could have been much worse. I could very easily have died because of the ignorance of these police officers and I don't want something like this to happen to anybody else."
His ordeal began when he went to watch a rugby match at a bar with his daughter Tracy, a primary school teacher, in Oldham, Greater Manchester, last October.
When he began to feel unwell after the match, Mr Connor, an engineer, stepped outside the bar to get some fresh air.
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Bruised: Peter Connor was injured during the scuffle while he was having the diabetic attack
But when he went to go back inside the doormen blocked his way and refused him entry because they thought he was drunk.
His daughter came out of the bar to explain his slurred speech and agitated behaviour were the signs of a hypoglycaemic attack, caused by a lack of sugar in the body.
Miss Connor, 24, said: "I explained to the doorman that my dad suffers from severe diabetes – he needs to inject insulin five times daily – and that his behaviour was a result of this."
Alerted to the commotion, police officers patrolling nearby came over to find out what was going on and then arrested the sick man.
Miss Connor said: "Four officers barged past me, throwing their arms around dad's shoulders and pushing him to the ground with severe force.
"The police then knelt on dad's throat, pinning him to the ground while handcuffs were applied."
Mr Connor, from Lees, Oldham, and a member of the Oldham branch of Diabetes UK, was locked in a police cell and left without food or drink before being charged with a public order offence.
Mr Connor said: "There was a stone embedded in my head due to being forced on to the ground and a week later I discovered I had cracked ribs.
"I have spent months worrying about this, and how much public money has been thrown away. I have been out of work for nearly two years after being made redundant and have applied for over 160 jobs without success.
"What affect would a conviction have had on my job prospects? It would be a very bad stain on my character and would also limit scope for any voluntary work in the future.
It is only now that the Crown Prosecution Service has decided it was not in the public interest to prosecute him.
Mr Connor said: "There needs to be more public awareness about diabetes and particularly about the attacks people can suffer that can be fatal.
"I count myself lucky that I am alive today after this incident. I can't remember a whole lot about the attack but I could easily have died given that it took police a full four hours to get me to the hospital for medical treatment.
"I fully expected an apology but instead I was charged and dragged through the judicial system before someone finally saw sense."
Mr Connor has filed an official complaint against Greater Manchester Police and says lessons need to be learned to prevent a repeat.
A spokesman at Greater Manchester Police said: "An internal investigation into the circumstances surrounding this man's arrest is currently underway, so it would be inappropriate to comment further at this stage."
An inquest learned earlier this week that a navy officer was left to die on her cabin floor because shipmates thought she was drunk.
Lieutenant Emma Douglas, 29, was left unconscious and half-naked on her cabin floor and later died after falling into a diabetic coma.
The officer, from Huntly, Aberdeenshire, died in her cabin on the destroyer HMS Cornwall in October 2004.
An inquest jury returned a narrative verdict on her death.
More than two million people in the UK suffer from diabetes though up to 700,000 could have the condition but be undiagnosed.
Reader views (2)
Here's a sample of the latest views published. You can click view all to read all views that readers have sent in.
I don't like the inference in this story and the post from Ellie that both men appear to have been 'roughed up' by the Police. Are we to believe this is routine when arresting people incapable of protecting themselves?
- Mark, Bournemouth England
The same thing happened to my dad.
He was on a high street in Liverpool at 11am when he had a hypo. He tried to get a coke in a newsagents but could not make himself understood and slipped and fell on his way out of the shop.
Passers by assumed he was drunk but called the police and an ambulance. The ambulance staff took one look at him and according to a bystander said "This one is one for you" to the police. They did not check him over at all.
He was then arrested held in a cell for two hours without any treatment during which he was "roughed up" by the arresting officers. It was not until hours later they discovered his diabetic card and in a panic gave him two chocolate bars and a can of coke which left him in hospital with high sugars!
I was furious not with the police but more so with the ambulance workers. It took me a number of months but I eventually got a written apology for my dad and a promise that the ambulance workers would be re-trained.
I cannot believe that this has happened to someone else!
- Ellie, Liverpool, Liverpool UK
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