Wednesday 28 September 2022 03:26 PM Female cop cleared of assaulting Dalian Atkinson trends now
A female cop has been cleared of assaulting former Aston Villa star Dalian Atkinson as he was Tasered and kicked to death by her fellow police officer boyfriend.
Pc Mary Ellen Bettley-Smith has been cleared at Birmingham Crown Court of assaulting the retired footballer prior to his death in Telford, Shropshire, in 2016.
Jurors deliberated for three hours and two minutes before acquitting Bettley-Smith, who struck Dalian Atkinson three times with a baton after he was tasered to the ground by Pc Benjamin Monk, who was jailed last year for manslaughter.
Bettley-Smith told her trial she was left 'shaking from head to toe' and was sure she would have come to serious harm if Mr Atkinson had managed to get to his feet.
The 32-year-old told the jury she had used her baton lawfully as a last resort as she desperately tried to control Mr Atkinson, who she said was 'actively resisting and trying to get up' at the scene in Meadow Close, Trench.
Pc Mary Ellen Bettley-Smith has been cleared at Birmingham Crown Court of assaulting retired Aston Villa footballer Dalian Atkinson prior to his death
Bettley-Smith told her trial she was left 'shaking from head to toe' and was sure she would have come to serious harm if Mr Atkinson had managed to get to his feet
Following the acquittal, the trial judge John Butterfield KC told the jury: 'You leave the court with my real thanks.'
Bettley-Smith, 32, was accused of assault occasioning actual bodily harm following the retired footballer's death in August 2016.
Former Aston Villa striker Atkinson died after being tasered by PC Benjamin Monk outside his dad's home in Telford, Shropshire.
Monk zapped the 48-year-old with a stun-gun for 33 seconds before kicking him twice in the head and was jailed for eight years for manslaughter in June last year.
Today Monk's former girlfriend Bettley-Smith went on trial at Birmingham Crown Court for a second time after a jury previously failed to reach a verdict.
Former footballer Dalian Atkinson, left, died on August 15 2016 after an encounter with police outside his father's home in Meadow Close, Telford, Shropshire. Pictured right is PC Mary Ellen Bettley-Smith, who denies a charge of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
PC Benjamin Monk was jailed for eight years after being convicted of manslaughter following a previous trial
The court earlier heard she acted unlawfully when she struck Atkinson with her baton 'with as much force as she could muster' while he lay on the ground after being tasered.
She may have acted 'out of anger' or because she had been told by her partner Monk: 'F**king hit him, f**king hit him', jurors were told.
But Bettley-Smith, of West Mercia Police, claims she used reasonable force at the time and acted in self defence because she considered her life was in danger.
Prosecutor Paul Jarvis said: 'Dalian Atkinson died after an encounter outside his father's home with two police officers, PC Benjamin Monk and PC Ellie Bettley-Smith.
'Those officers were in an intimate relationship at that time.
'I should make it clear at the outset that it has never been the prosecution's case that Ellie Bettley-Smith was responsible in any way for Dalian Atkinson's death.
'But it has always been the prosecution's case that she unlawfully struck Dalian Atkinson more than once with her baton to the back of his body as he lay on the ground, thereby causing bruising that amounted to actual bodily harm.
'Ellie Bettley-Smith does not deny striking Dalian Atkinson but she maintains that she did so either in self-defence, or in defence of
