Fourth Charing Cross Met Police officer fired after BBC Panorama film
Setting out the case, James Berry KC, representing the Met, said: "The Panorama footage demonstrates PC Sinclair-Birt boasted about and revelled in the use of force, and what he was describing was an excessive use of force, on a detainee." In the undercover footage, played to the panel, Mr Sinclair-Birt was seen describing the arrest saying he "whacked....the back of his legs trying to get him to drop to the floor". He went on to say, "there's definitely a little bit of red mist there". The officer was seen smiling during the incident, which the Met said indicated a "troubling lack of remorse or concern for a member of the public". The hearing was told the conduct of the officer breached the Met's standards of professional behaviour and the conduct amounted to gross misconduct. Mr Sinclair-Birt denied the allegation against him, but accepted he made the comments which appeared in the programme. In his statement, he said the comments made to the undercover reporter were "empty words and not a true account of the underlying incident". He said he was "embellishing the account of an actual stop and search and he was doing so for comedic effect". The hearing was played body-worn footage from the stop and search which took place in July 2022, and showed Mr Sinclair-Birt did not use his baton during the incident. The panel was told Mr Sinclair-Birt used "lawful and proportionate force" throughout the arrest to get the detainee to sit down. Giving his decision Chair Commander Jason Prins said: "The officer has chosen to share a false account which revelled in the use of force. He added: "In my view the false account was meant to be taken at face value."