A suspect attacked an off-duty police officer and gouged his eye as they grappled on the floor of a Perth newsagents.
Sergeant Daryl Platinga was out shopping with his wife when he overhead what he believed was a robbery in progress.
He stopped Kieran O’Connor from “fleeing” the South Street Newsagent and pushed him back inside.
But O’Connor managed to overpower the officer, seizing him by the throat and throwing him to the ground.
The 28-year-old then repeatedly struck his head and gouged him by putting his thumb into his eye.
Sgt Platinga, covered in bruises and with blood coming from his eye, managed to keep O’Connor on the floor until back-up arrived.
Groundsworker O’Connor denied assaulting the officer during the fracas on August 7 2021.
He said he was acting in self defence, claiming he never knew the man who launched himself at him was a police officer.
Over-reaction?
A trial at Perth Sheriff Court heard there never was a robbery.
Sgt Platinga told fiscal depute Lora Apostolova he shouted “police” or “I’m a police officer,” as he intervened.
He had been shopping at Tesco nearby with his wife when he overhead raised voices in the South Street Newsagent.
A witness described how O’Connor was “going kind of crazy with his arms, trying to get away.”
O’Connor, of Clayton Road, Bridge of Earn, told his trial he had drunk about four or five pints before he went into the shop at around 6pm to buy more alcohol.
The transaction went without incident and he left the store with his booze but about 10 minutes later, he realised he had left behind his mobile phone on the shop counter.
“I went back in but it wasn’t the person who had served me before,” he said.
“They weren’t giving me my phone back.
“We were discussing this and there were raised voices, when all of a sudden this guy came into the shop and pushed me.”
O’Connor said: “I think I reacted reasonably to him grabbing hold of me.
“I was trying to get him off me and get him out of my road.”
He insisted Sgt Platinga never told him he was an officer, despite CCTV showing the two men talking to one another.
Should have stepped back
Solicitor David Holmes, defending, said: “I’m sure Mr O’Connor wishes he’d simply remembered to pick up his phone in the first place.”
He said: “The police officer may have had the best of intentions but he over-reacted.
“This was not a robbery, my client had simply forgotten his phone.”
He said the officer’s injuries were not consistent with someone trying to cause harm.
“This was a very, very unfortunate situation,” he said.
Sheriff William Wood found O’Connor guilty of assaulting Sgt Platinga, as well as acting in a threatening or abusive manner by shouting a swearing.
The sheriff told him: “This trial has raised a number of interesting questions about the dynamics of what went on at that newsagents.
“I found the evidence of police witnesses credible and reliable – and more reliable than your own evidence, given you explain you had four or five pints at the time.”
He said: “It seems to me that Sgt Platinga may have over-reacted to the situation, thinking it was a robbery.
“But I do accept that he did identify himself as a police officer from the outset.”
The sheriff said: “I also accept that your thumb went into his eye in the context of a struggle.
“But it was a deliberate action on your part.
“You should have taken a step back.”
O’Connor, who was cleared of a shoplifting charge, was fined £1,000.
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