TWO police officers who accused TV handyman Huntley Thawe of assault in a McDonald’s car park in Redditch are now under investigation.
After a three-day trial at Redditch Magistrates Court, Mr Thawe, star of Channel Four’s The Renovation Game, was found not guilty of two counts of assault on a police officer, resisting an officer and using threatening or abusive words or behaviour.
The 48-year-old, who is from Bromsgrove but now lives in Elmley Close, Kidderminster, was captured on camera being repeatedly hit with a baton, punched and pepper-sprayed as officers tried to arrest him at the restaurant on Clews Road, Oakenshaw, on April 15.
A row had erupted over passports after Mr Thawe met with estraged wife, Anna Thawe, to pick up his children, aged eight and six to go on holiday.
Satisfied the arrest was ‘unlawful’, Magistrate David Shadwell said Mr Thawe was acting in self defence.
A formal complaint has since been made against two of the officers involved in the incident.
A spokesperson for West Mercia Police said: “We acknowledge the findings of the court.
“We can confirm that we have received a formal complaint against two of the officers involved in the arrest of Mr Thawe.
“Now that legal proceedings have concluded we can start our investigation into this complaint and it would be inappropriate for us to comment further at this time.”
