Police officer cleared of assaulting Chesterfield fan before match

A police officer has been cleared of assaulting a Chesterfield fan before a match.
PC Liam Stewart.PC Liam Stewart.
PC Liam Stewart.

PC Liam Stewart had been accused of causing 18-year-old Louis McAndrew actual bodily harm by pushing him up against the shutters of a shop and punching him three times.

But a jury at Leeds Crown Court found him not guilty of the offence after a trial.

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The incident, which was captured on CCTV, occurred on Tuesday August 8, 2017, before Chesterfield played Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough.

PC Liam Stewart.PC Liam Stewart.
PC Liam Stewart.

Mr McAndrew and friends had arrived in the city on the train and visited a series of pubs before getting a taxi to Hillsborough Corner.

He was asked to leave The Hillsborough Tap pub because he was an away fan.

Officers later issued him with a section 35 order to leave the area, and banning him from attending the match.

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PC Stewart, of Barnsley, thought McAndrew was about to punch him as he had taken off his jacket and dropped his shoulder, the court heard.

The officer then grabbed the teenager by the throat who “could not breathe”, pushed him against a set of shutters and then punched him three times.

But PC Stewart, who had been charged following an investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct, said he was acting in self-defence and was cleared of the offence.

The court had previously heard that Mr McAndrew was with a group "commonly referred to as football hooligans" known as the Chesterfield B**tard squad.

He had also been given a three-year football banning order in March 2018.