EXTRA: UK police dismiss Nigerian-born officer for ‘biting’ colleague

The United Kingdom police have dismissed a Nigerian-born officer identified as Shola Balogun for allegedly biting a colleague. 

During a hearing between October 21 – 23, the panel held that Balogun was “significantly under the influence of alcohol” when the incident happened on April 22, 2022.

According to court document, both officers attended a colleague’s 40th birthday party in Bexleyheath, Kent, and had a good working relationship at their Bromley police station base since June 2018.

The unnamed assaulted officer, tagged as PC in the document, said he walked up a flight of stairs from the dance floor and found Balogun in front of him.

“PC Balogun was about an arms-length away when he reached out and grabbed PC spectacles off his face and dropped them on the floor,” the panel heard.

“This surprised PC and he claimed to have then approached PC Balogun in a friendly manner whereupon PC Balogun responded by pushing him with his right hand to PC throat area.

“When PC then complained about PC Balogun’s actions in a conversation at a time when they were only a foot apart because the music was so loud, PC Balogun is alleged to have leant forward and to have bitten PC on the right side of his face.”

However, Balogun denied biting the officer or grabbing his throat, saying he only knocked off his glasses by accident when he put on the flat cap that he had come to the party wearing.

The investigative committee said it had evidence from a hospital that supports the assaulted officer’s case, alongside pictures taken of his face.

The panel added that Balogun admitted that he had been drinking alcohol before he arrived at the birthday party.

Other officers present at the party also described Balogun as arriving at the party “in a ridiculously drunken state”.

“Gross misconduct is defined as a breach of the standards of professional behaviour that is so serious as to justify dismissal,” the panel concluded.

“The only appropriate and proportionate outcome in this case is Dismissal Without Notice.”

The committee said Balogun’s history of an “unblemished past” did little to alleviate the “grave allegations” brought against him.