Three men and a 13-year-old boy appeared at Thames Magistrates Court on Friday charged with assaulting emergency workers, after they allegedly attacked two police officers in Hackney.
Video footage of the incident on Frampton Park Road released by police on Wednesday showed an officer struggling on the ground and his female colleague being pushed while onlookers took selfies and danced around them.
The thirteen-year-old, who can not be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty to two charges of assault on an emergency worker, when he appeared in court on Friday.
Prosecutor Varinder Hayre said the youth had admitted to “kicking” and had been “shouting abuse” at the officers during an “unprovoked, deliberate” attack. She said the video of the incident had received national attention.
Hayre said PC Macpherson and PC Ali were dealing with an incident that the teenager became involved in. “He then kicked towards PC Macpherson’s head and he hit PC Ali in the leg,” she said, adding: “He was shouting abuse.”
She said the teenager explained he thought he had been “helping” another man and this had been combined with what he had seen in news coverage regarding “Black Lives Matter”.
“He said he was sorry for kicking the officers,” she said, adding “he should not have got involved in the way that he did”.
District Judge Jonathan Radway referred the case to Stratford Youth Court for sentencing on July 8. Bail was granted to the thirteen-year-old, under conditions which including staying at home between the hours of 7pm and 7am.
Later on Friday, three men facing assault charges relating to their alleged involvement in the incident appeared at the same court in consecutive hearings.
Paul Kabemba, 33 of Morning Lane, Hackney, pleaded not guilty to one count of assault by beating on a member of the public and one count of assault on an emergency worker.
He was granted bail on the condition that he does not contact the civilian victim, who he is alleged to have punched and spat at.
Jordan Thomas, 20 of Woolridge Way, Hackney, pleaded not-guilty to two counts of assaulting an emergency worker.
Marvin Henderson, 34 of Frampton Park Road, Hackney, who chose to represent himself in court, indicated not guilty pleas to the same charges.
Both Thomas and Henderson were granted unconditional bail.
The case has been referred to Wood Green Crown Court, where they are due to appear on July 10.
The incident had sparked wide-scale condemnation from the Government. Home Secretary, Priti Patel said the incident was “sickening, shocking & disgraceful.” She added: “All assaults on our brave police are completely unacceptable.”
Philip Glanville, Mayor of Hackney said earlier: “My thoughts are with both officers who showed such bravery when faced with that situation. Our police are here to keep us safe and scenes like those from Wednesday, while wholly unacceptable, are thankfully rare”.
The Mayor of Hackney condemned those who had been making racist comments with respect to the incident.
“Sadly, the attack has also been used by some to make disgusting racists comments about the incident. This is also unacceptable and an attack not just on Hackney’s diverse communities, but the Metropolitan Police, whose officers are, as they were at this incident, from a wide range of backgrounds.”
