A POLICE officer who was alleged to have ‘violently flung’ a teenage football fan against a shutter has been cleared of assault following a trial.

PC Liam Stewart, 33, from Hoyland, denied assaulting 18-year-old Louis McAndrew during an incident in Sheffield on August 8, 2017.

Mr McAndrew, 18, suffered a broken nose after he was allegedly pushed against a shop’s shutters and hit by the officer, whose actions were caught on CCTV.

The teen was subsequently arrested and charged with assaulting a police officer, however the charges were dropped when CCTV footage was uncovered and, following an investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), PC Stewart was charged with assault.

He pleaded not guilty to the charge and claimed he was acting in self-defence.

The jury in the trial, held at Leeds Crown Court, was told by prosecutor Ian Brook that PC Stewart’s actions had been ‘totally improper police conduct’.

He also said PC Stewart’s claims of the teenager punching him were false and that Mr McAndrew pushed him away as ‘he could not breathe’.

CCTV and videos from the scene were shown to the court on Monday and Mr Brook asked the jury if they could see Louis spitting and looking as if he was swearing.

“That CCTV blows his case out of the water,” added Mr Brook. “What he did was quite unreasonable and totally disproportionate to any contact the complainant made to him or any future threat he may have perceived as imminent.

“Putting it colloquially, we see the defendant went over the top in his dealings with this youth.”

Mr McAndrew, a Chesterfield fan, had travelled to see his team play Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough and had been to several pubs in the city before going to the Hillsborough Tap on Middlewood Road.

He was served at the pub but was asked to leave as the landlady said it served home fans only. After going to warn his friends, the police were called and officers arrived, they served the fans with section 35 orders that banned them from going to the match.

PC Stewart denied grabbing Mr McAndrew by the throat, instead saying he held his T-shirt which was allegedly ripped in the incident, with photos of this being supplied to jurors.

Adam Birkby, defending, said PC Stewart had demonstrated ‘respect and restraint’ throughout his career and had not been subject to a complaint over the use of force before the incident.

He cited previous instances where the complainant had been ‘in the vicinity’ of flares being set off at matches and arguments between fans, saying he had been given a three-year football banning order in March 2018.

Following the week-long trial, jurors found PC Stewart not guilty on Wednesday.