Devon and Cornwall Police officer gross misconduct for excessive force

PC Michael Ireland then lied that the detainee, who lost a tooth in the incident, had 'just nutted the f*****g door'.

Ireland also sprayed another drunk he arrested with irritant spray and called him a 'horrible creature, kn*b head, clown, dick, rat, tit and doughnut'.

Newquay-based Ireland also handcuffed a third drunk man and grabbed him by the throat, used force on his legs and threatened to 'fold him in half in the back of the van' before placing him in leg restraints.

A police misconduct hearing was told that two of the arrests were made in January 2024 and one in December 2023.

The panel was told Ireland, who joined the police in 2007, serving in Merseyside before transferring to the Devon and Cornwall force in 2022, lied about what had happened in the Newquay custody suite.

The incidents were caught on CCTV and bodyworn camera footage.

He said the irritant spray incident was a 'punishment' and acknowledged he had gone from 'zero to a hundred miles an hour' and should not have said the things he did to him.

And in the police van incident Ireland admitted he 'went over the top'.

The panel was told Ireland, who was not present at the hearing and left the force in December 2025, used 'excessive force whilst dealing with three different males, all of whom were intoxicated'.

They found that Ireland was angry when he intentionally swung the man to cause his injuries to his head, face and mouth – as seen on CCTV – and that he was deliberately dishonest afterwards as he tried to 'distort the facts'.

They said the use of the spray was 'unnecessary, disproportionate and unreasonable' as well as excessive, as were his forceful actions against the detainee in the van.

The panel concluded it was gross misconduct and he would have been dismissed without notice if he had still been serving.