Met Police face paying up to £2M to man after he was Tasered by copBP

The Met Police are set to pay out millions after being sued by a young black man left paralyses from the chest down when a cop Tasered him.

Jordan Walker-Brown, 27, broke his back when he fell backwards over a fence in Harringay, north London, after being Tasered by PC Imran Mahmood during the coronavirus lockdown in May 2020.

The officer said he feared Mr Walker-Brown – who was running away and unarmed at the time he was shot with the Taser – had a knife and believed he needed to be ‘contained’.

PC Mahmood was cleared of GBH following the incident at a trial in May last year. But Mr Walker-Brown is also suing the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis for compensation over the life-changing injuries he suffered.

The High Court heard this week that the Metropolitan Police have admitted liability in relation to Mr Walker-Brown’s claim and now face paying out millions of pounds in damages and court costs.

Jordan Walker-Brown who was left paralysed when Metropolitan Police constable Imran Mahmood, 36, tasered him during Covid lockdown

PC  Mahmood pictured attending Southwark Crown Court last year before he was found not guilty of unlawfully inflicting grievous bodily harm on Jordan Walker-Brown

A High Court hearing before judge Master Richard Armstrong this week revealed that Mr Walker-Brown has been running a civil claim for damages over his injuries and that the Met Police are now in line to make a ‘chunky seven-figure’ payout to him.

Master Armstrong told the court: ‘This is a claim for damages for assault and breach of human rights. The claimant was Tasered, causing him to fall from a wall and rendering him paraplegic from the chest down. Liability is admitted and this is a quantum dispute.’

Kate Boakes, for Mr Walker-Brown, told the judge that the compensation claim had been delayed by the criminal proceedings against Mr Mahmood in which he was accused of GBH.

‘It took a long time for the admission of liability to come through because we were waiting for the conclusion of the criminal trial,’ she said.

She told the judge the full value of the claim has yet to be calculated, but said: ‘This is going to be a high value case’.

‘It’s clearly a seven-figure case. It’s a chunky seven figure case, but I cant be more specific than that,’ she told the judge, adding, ‘the claimant is very young and he’s suffered a very severe injury and its a very complicated case’.

She also told the judge that the claimant’s budget for court costs was £1.26m, which Master Armstrong described as ‘eye watering’.

Kate Lumbers, for the Met Police, told the judge that they regard the claim as being worth between £1m and £2m.

Mr Walker-Brown was unarmed at the time he was shot with the Taser. He has now been forced to use a wheelchair following the incident in May 2020

‘The value of the claim itself we would not assess as being of the maximum type. Is it a large case? Yes it is. It may well be over a million, but over two million? It’s hard to assess,’ she said.

She asked for extra time for the police to examine the expert medical evidence and decide whether they wanted to obtain their own experts’ reports to challenge it.

The judge, commenting that there was to be particular focus on neuropsychiatrists, neuropsychologists and fertility experts, allowed the police extra time adding: ‘The claimant is the person who is suffering by the trial date being put back, but the parties must be given reasonable time to get their evidence together’.

The judge made directions for the full case to be heard in a ten-day trial in 2026.

Giving evidence at the crown court trial last year, PC Mahmood described how he was one of a group of nine officers from the Met’s territorial support group who were in a police vehicle when they saw Mr Walker-Brown walking down the road on 4 May 2020.

He told jurors he thought Mr Walker-Brown was wearing a small bag around his waist, and his suspicion was ‘heightened’ because such bags were often used to conceal weapons or drugs and Mr Walker-Brown did not seem to be out for shopping or exercise.

The court heard that PC Mahmood and a colleague began following him on foot when Mr Walker-Brown started running away from them, climbing on top of a wheelie bin and scrambling on to an adjacent wall. It was at this point Mr Walker-Brown was Tasered, fell and hit his head on a footpath.

The moment PC Mahmood fired his Taser at Mr Walker-Brown was captured on body-worn camera.

Jordan Walker-Brown outside Southwark Crown Court, after PC Imran Mahmood was found not guilty of unlawfully inflicting grievous bodily harm on him

Prosecutor Ben Fitzgerald KC told jurors: ‘Mr Walker-Brown did not present a physical threat to Mr Mahmood or anyone else. He did not produce a weapon or try to attack anyone; he was trying to get away.

‘Mr Mahmood fired the Taser at the moment when it looked as if Mr Walker-Brown might get away over the wall.

‘He discharged the Taser when Mr Walker-Brown was up on the wheelie bin, with the obvious risk of injury from an uncontrolled fall, which is exactly what happened, with catastrophic results.

‘Mr Mahmood should not have used the Taser. It was not, the prosecution say, a reasonable use of force in the circumstances he faced. It was not lawful.’

The officer had received training highlighting the fact that Tasers cause ‘intense pain’ and trigger an inability to control the muscles, and that Tasering someone at a height is especially risky.

However the cop was cleared after he told the jury Mr Walker-Brown had reached for his waistband while running and did not respond when asked to stop.

PC Mahmood denied he acted illegally, saying he believed Mr Walker-Brown was cornered with a knife and ‘about to attack’.

In a press release from his lawyers, Mr Walker-Brown said he ran from the police because he had ‘a small amount of cannabis in my possession for personal use’ but said he believed he was more at risk of being stopped by police because he is black.

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