Met officer Andrew Ott guilty of London student protest assault

A Met Police officer has been convicted of assaulting a student whose tooth was knocked out during a protest.

PC Andrew Ott struck William Horner with his riot shield at a tuition fees protest in London in 2010.

He and two officers were also accused of concocting a reason to falsely arrest the student.

Ott, 36, was found guilty of causing actual bodily harm at Southwark Crown Court. All three were cleared of perverting the course of justice.

Mr Horner, then aged 20, was trying to break free from a kettled area during the protest in Parliament Square, Westminster on 9 December when he was struck.

The Royal Holloway student was then arrested on suspicion of threatening to commit criminal damage.

Ott, from Rochester in Kent, PC Calvin Lindsay, 31, from east London, and PC Thomas Barnes, 31, from Kent, were accused of making up a reason to arrest Mr Horner after he was injured.

The protests saw riot police pelted with missiles including rocks and concrete blocks, and the statues in Parliament Square being daubed with graffiti, the court heard.

No further action was taken against Mr Horner.

PC Lindsay, from Leytonstone, and PC Barnes, from Greenhithe, and Ott have been on restricted duties during court proceedings.

Ott will be sentenced on Wednesday.