A police officer has been convicted of the manslaughter of former Premier League footballer Dalian Atkinson.
West Mercia Police PC Benjamin Monk discharged a Taser at the ex-Aston Villa striker and kicked him twice in the head after being called out to an incident in August 2016.
Mr Atkinson, 48, was involved in a six-minute confrontation with police at his father’s home in Telford, Shropshire, and died later in hospital.
At Birmingham crown court today, Monk, 43, was cleared of murder but found guilty by the jury of manslaughter.
The jury continues to deliberate on an assault charge against the officer’s colleague, PC Mary Ellen Bettley-Smith.
The court heard Mr Atkinson appeared to be having a mental health crisis when police arrived, having made death threats and smashed a glass door pane at his childhood home.
Arguing Monk’s case to the jury, his barrister Patrick Gibbs QC said the 33-second Taser deployment was delivered “in complete confusion and panic”.
Prosecutors had alleged the officer acted in anger, but Mr Gibbs told jurors the PC was “frightened” by Mr Atkinson’s behaviour.
“There was something about the way in which he (Atkinson) presented in the street which made (a witness inside a house) take ballistic cover and to tell his wife to do the same thing”, he said.
“Events go from 0-60 in about a minute flat because that’s all it took for his psychotic state to manifest itself and for the Taser to be fired.”
The court heard the first Taser firing on Mr Atkinson appeared to have no effect, and Monk was said to have “every reason to fear the worst”.
The officer kicked Mr Atkinson twice in the head, but argued that he had aimed for the shoulder area in lawful self-defence after running out of Taser cartridges.
Monk and Bettley-Smith both denied the charges against them. The jury deliberated for more than 18 hours before delivering its initial verdict.
