PCs in fist fight over who should drive van with new radio first

When PC Aled Bartlett was allocated the van, PC Byron Emerson-Thomas was more than a little put out, a court heard yesterday.

Words were exchanged, tea spilt and finally a punch thrown as the former friends came to blows in front of fellow officers.

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"This was a petty dispute or squabble about who was going to drive the police van that night," prosecutor Mark Spackman said.

"Although it happened in a police station between two police officers this is no less criminal conduct than if it was two people fighting in the street."

Newport Crown Court was told that the officers clashed at Fairwater police station in Cardiff where they had worked together for five months.

The two had known each other for four years and had been paired to go out on duty together on the evening of May 1 last year.

Mr Spackman said that after PC Bartlett was told by the duty sergeant to take the van, Emerson-Thomas was "a bit upset and he asked PC Bartlett if he could have it".

"PC Bartlett simply got up and picked up the keys from the board then sat down at a table to drink a cup of tea." The other officer then punched PC Bartlett's arm, spilling his tea, the court heard.

PC Bartlett picked up a paper towel to clean up the tea. Emerson-Thomas was accused of using other towels to wipe the tea down his colleague's arm.

Mr Spackman said: "Emerson-Thomas then shoved the paper towels into PC Bartlett's face. Other officers told the pair 'Boys leave it there'.

"But Emerson-Thomas then lashed out at PC Bartlett with his fist and hit his eyebrow. It was a hard punch and knocked the contact lens out of his eye. There was a cut which may have been caused by the signet ring Emerson-Thomas was wearing."

PC Bartlett was taken to hospital for eight stitches to an inch-long wound above his eye.

Emerson-Thomas, of Cowbridge, near Cardiff, was sent home and has been suspended since the incident. He denies unlawful wounding.

PC Bartlett told the jury: "Matt (Emerson-Thomas) came up behind me and I felt a punch on my shoulder which knocked the tea all over the table."

He was asked by Mr Spackman how he felt after Emerson-Thomas rubbed the saturated paper towels on his arm and in his face.

The officer, who sometimes stood in as a sergeant, replied: "It made me feel humiliated that he would do such a thing in front of the whole shift."

PC Bartlett admitted he threw a two-litre bottle of water into Emerson-Thomas's chest which the other officer caught with one hand. He was holding a cup of tea in the other.

PC Bartlett knocked this tea out of Emerson-Thomas's hand. "I flicked the tea so he wouldn't he able to throw it over me," he said.

"As far as I was concerned, the incident was over and I was stood there with my hands by my side and I got punched."

PC Bartlett denied a suggestion that he was determined to get his own back on Emerson-Thomas for being humiliated with the wet paper towels and went towards the defendant before being punched.

He acknowledged the pair had been good friends and had made plans to go to a Lionel Richie concert together before the altercation.

The trial continues.