Jonathan Broadhead: Met Police officer faces sack after ‘tasering 10-year-old girl’ in south London

A Metropolitan Police officer accused of tasering a 10-year-old girl is facing an allegation of gross misconduct.

PC Jonathan Broadhead, who was first named on Tuesday (19 September), allegedly used the weapon twice on the child at her home in southwest London, following reports she was threatening a woman with garden shears and a hammer.

He is accused of using force which was “not necessary, reasonable or proportionate”, according to a notice posted on the Met Police’s website, and will face a hearing in November. It will be alleged during the hearing that his use of force amounts to gross misconduct which, if proven, could lead to him being sacked.

After the incident took place in January 2021, the Crown Prosecution Service declined to prosecute Broadhead - meaning he did not face any criminal charges.

However, following an investigation, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) decided he had a case to answer for gross misconduct. He was subsequently placed on restricted duties.

Officers had been called to the property in London shortly after 5pm on 21 January 2021 following “reports of a girl threatening a woman with garden shears and a hammer.”

In a statement at the time, a spokesperson for the Met said: “Officers attended the scene and entered the property. A police taser was discharged.

“The girl was uninjured but taken to hospital as a precaution. The Met’s Directorate of Professional Standards carried out a review of the incident and no misconduct was identified.”

In a statement released on Tuesday (19 September), the Met said: “It is alleged that on January 21, 2021 the officer used force against a 10-year-old child, which was not necessary, reasonable, and proportionate in all the circumstances.

“In particular, the officer deployed his taser against [the child] and/or deployed his taser against [the child] for a second time.”

It comes on the same day the force revealed more than 1,000 officers are currently suspended or on restricted duties - with around 60 potentially facing the sack over the next two years - and just a week after the IOPC said three Met Police officers would face a misconduct hearing over the strip-search of a 15-year-old girl, known as Child Q, in 2020.