A police officer who knocked out a student's tooth with a riot shield was today told he carried out "gratuitous and unnecessary violence" as he was jailed for eight months.
Pc Andrew Ott, 36, struck Royal Holloway student William Horner as the 20-year-old tried to break free from a kettled area on Parliament Square in Westminster during protests over tuition fees in 2010.
Ott was found guilty yesterday of one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, but cleared of perverting the course of justice.
Today at Southwark Crown Court he sobbed in the dock as he was sentenced to eight months in prison.
The judge told Ott: "An extremely serious aggravating factor is your abuse of power as a police officer.
"You hit him with a full force blow to his face with your shield.
"That was wholly gratuitous, unnecessary violence, and I have considered the stress on William Horner over the last few years."
Jurors heard that Ott was taped on his personal recording device threatening violence towards the crowds that had gathered near the Houses of Parliament and talking about "getting" the protesters.
He was heard saying: "Poked the little c*** right in the eye" and "I've had enough of these c****, I just f****** hit him," the court heard.
Judge Pegden said he had "absolutely no doubt" that policing the protests on December 9 2010 was "frightening, stressful and exhausting".
But Mr Horner, who was not in court for the sentencing, "simply wanted to go home" and had not committed an offence when he was attacked, the judge added.
In mitigation, Kevin Baumber said his client had been diagnosed with depression and suffered from severe stress.
"Your honour may feel think on that day he was pushed into losing his normally sound judgment in what was a long, tiring and terrifying day," Mr Baumber said. "It was a day that was traumatic. It was a trauma that still lives with him."
Ott, who has served as a police officer since 2003, faced the "double jeopardy" of criminal proceedings and disciplinary action and was in danger of losing a career "that is dear to him", he added.
Ott's colleagues, Pc Calvin Lindsay and Pc Thomas Barnes, were both cleared yesterday of perverting the course of justice.
An investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission found all three officers have a case to answer for gross misconduct and they will face disciplinary hearings by the Met.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Fiona Taylor, of the Met Police's directorate of professionalism, said: "We are naturally disappointed that an MPS officer has been convicted of an assault.
"His behaviour clearly fell well below the high standards we expect of our officers, even in challenging circumstances such as the violent disorder in which this incident occurred, and it is right that he was held to account in the criminal courts."
Additional reporting by PA
