British academic pinned to the ground and thrown in jail by U.S. police - for jaywalking

But a British historian never thought it could get you pinned to the ground by five policemen and thrown into jail for eight hours.

Felipe Fernandez-Armesto said he was the victim of "terrible, terrible violence" after he crossed the road in the wrong place in Atlanta, Georgia, last week.

The 56-year-old academic failed to realise that a man telling him to stop crossing was a police officer and he argued with him.

Kevin Leonpacher kicked the professor's legs from under him when he hesitated in showing his ID. The officer called for back-up and Professor Fernandez-Armesto was handcuffed to another suspect in a "filthy, foetid paddy wagon".

Traumatised, disorientated and with a gash to the head, he was taken to jail and charged with pedestrian failure to obey a police officer and physical obstruction of police.

The professor of global environmental history at Queen Mary College, University of London, was in Atlanta for the American Historical Association convention.

He was crossing the road between the two hotels serving as conference venues when Officer Leonpacher, 28, spotted him and shouted at him five times to stop crossing. The officer said he could not handcuff the professor by himself because he was "kicking wildly". He said: "After about a minute I was able to wrestle him to the ground where I held on to his right arm as I called for back-up."

The professor could not raise the £720 bail so he had to stay in jail, going through "pretty much every imaginable degree of despair", until he got out with the help of a bail agent.

He was 'tortured' by the fear of a criminal record which would wreck his chances of working in America, but in court the next day prosecutors agreed to drop the charges.

An internal police inquiry is under way after the city's mayor asked the department's head to look into the incident.