February 6, 2018 11.17 am This story is over 73 months old

Police officer accused of staging knife attack has ‘no memory’ of incident

He said he accepted the injuries may have been self-inflicted.

Photo: Emily Norton

A Lincolnshire police officer who is alleged to have falsely claimed that he was attacked while on duty today (Tues) said he had no memory of harming himself.

PC Anthony Colson faces a misconduct hearing after reporting that he was assaulted after attending the Beechwood car park in Boston.

The hearing has been told PC Colson pressed the emergency button on his air wave radio after going to the car park at around 8.30pm on November 18, 2016.

Officers found PC Colson with lacerations to his head and hand, and a craft knife nearby. It is alleged PC Colson reported that he had been assaulted and had seen a figure running off in to the woods.

The hearing was told a doctor who examined PC Colson’s injuries concluded they were self inflicted.

But giving evidence at Lincolnshire Police headquarters PC Colson told the hearing he did not deliberately deceive or mislead anybody as to what he could remember.

When asked by his lawyer Guy Ladenburg if he had any memory of harming himself PC Colson replied: “No.”

PC Colson said he went to the car park and got out of his vehicle to get his torch after believing he had seen a light.

The officer said he felt being struck to the head but did not see any assailant.

PC Colson said: “It was enough to stun me, to stumble forward a foot or two.

“I felt a scratch to the side of my head, then a second bang.”

PC Colson told the hearing he had never seen the craft knife that was found at the scene and did not know how the injury to his hand was caused.

It is alleged that PC Colson confirmed to two senior police officers during a meeting at Horncastle police station on December 16, 2016, that the assault did not happen and he then signed a declaration.

But PC Colson told the hearing he was “all over the place” as the meeting progressed and he just wanted to get out of the room to get back to his wife.

PC Colson said he did not believe that he was acting rationally during the meeting.

The hearing was told PC Colson joined Cambridgeshire Police in 2003, and moved in to a trainee role with CID, before transferring to Lincolnshire Police in 2007 where he worked as a patrol officer.

The officer said he was treated for depression following a work incident in 2009 and suffered further following the death of his father in 2013.

PC Colson told the hearing in 2014 he also suffered a road accident, the loss of a family dog and was assaulted while on duty in Spilsby.

As a result PC Colson said he suffered flash backs to his father’s death and he was again diagnosed with depression in the Autumn of 2016 after his best friend died of cancer.

“There were occasions at work when I would feel giddy, light headed, and isolated, and I had to go home,” the officer said.

A GP diagnosed PC Colson with anxiety but he did not receive any counselling until after the incident on November 18, 2016.

The officer said he did now accept that the injuries may have been self inflicted but he had no memory of doing or planning it himself.

PC Colson is accused of breaching professional standards by making several statements he knew or believed to be false. He denies five allegations.

The allegations centre on communications between November 18 and December 16, 2016, in which PC Colson pressed the emergency button on his air wave radio and then repeated that he had been assaulted.