Retired captain, 85, 'kneed Pc'

Captain Edmund Carlisle subjected police to a 'tirade of abuse'

A police officer says a retired army captain elbowed him in the nose and kneed him in the testicles as he tried to lead him to safety from a fire.

Captain Edmund Carlisle, 85, is suing Dyfed-Powys Police for assault, wrongful arrest and false imprisonment.

He claims officers prevented him saving valuable paintings and antiques from his 16th Century home near Hay-on-Wye.

Pc Geraint Skyrme told Cardiff County Court that Capt Carlisle had to be escorted out in an armlock.

Pc Skyrme said he and Pc Michelle Swales were called to the house fire at Llanigon, during a fire-fighters' strike, at about 1630 BST on 14 November 2002.

He said that when they arrived there was already a lot of smoke and cinders were swirling around their heads.

Pc Skyrme said he saw the captain and his wife Rosemary, now 84, outside and that the man was immediately offensive towards them.

He was starting to shake his arms and legs and at that stage he kneed me in the testicles and elbowed me in the nose Pc Geraint Skyrme

He said the couple went back inside the building when they were not looking, which meant he had to risk his own safety by following them inside.

Pc Skyrme said he eventually found the captain trying to remove large pictures which were chained to the dining room wall and that he helped take two of them outside.

He said the captain did not follow him and he had no choice but to go back inside and tell him to leave.

"His actions were jeopardising myself, my colleague and himself. It was unacceptable to stay in the house."

The fire spread from a boiler room to the rest of the house

Asked what would have happened if Capt Carlisle was left in the house, Pc Skyrme replied: "He would have died."

He said the captain continuously resisted them so they both escorted him outside in an armlock.

Pc Skyrme said Capt Carlisle subjected him to "a tirade of abuse" and swearing.

"He was starting to shake his arms and legs and at that stage he kneed me in the testicles and elbowed me in the nose."

He said that while this was happening the captain's trousers fell down. He denied that they were pulled down deliberately.

Possessions

Pc Skyrme said he then arrested the captain and he was put in the back of a police van for his own safety.

He said Mrs Carlisle had left the house when asked to for a second time and that he remembered seeing her walking around outside looking lost and distressed.

Capt Carlisle had told the court that the fire was initially confined to the boiler room and that there was plenty of time to save his valuables as it took another hour and a half to reach the main house.

He claimed the police stopped him saving his possessions out of malice because he had complained about officers' behaviour towards him in the past.

A statement from Mrs Carlisle was also read to the jury, which outlined the stress she had suffered from losing her home and heirlooms.

It added: "It is only due to their (the police's) malicious actions in preventing us and our neighbours from rescuing our possessions."

One neighbour told the court he had gone to the house to help rescue valuables but was turned away by police, although he believed there was "no immediate danger".

The case will continue on Thursday.