Protester jailed for hitting PC over the head with a megaphone

A man has been jailed after hitting a police officer over the head with a megaphone.

Atif Shafiq, 41, was attending a pro-Palestinian protest in Whitehall on Saturday.

He was among a reported 100,000 protesters who took to the streets of central London, calling for a ceasefire.

Shafiq left the Metropolitan Police officer needing stitches after he pulled the megaphone ‘to shoulder height’ before he ‘hit the victim around the head’.

The officer suffered a ‘large laceration’ and needed two stitches when he was taken to hospital.

District Judge Denis Brennan told Shafiq his actions could have ‘provoked a volatile reaction from the crowd’.

Shafiq, a father of four from Walthamstow in east London, appeared at Highbury magistrates court wearing a T-shirt with a Palestine flag and ‘love Palestine’ on the back.

The court heard Shafiq, who had attended numerous protests in the past, ended up behind the police cordon with a number of other protesters before ignoring police orders to ‘get back’.

Sentencing Shafiq to six months in jail, District Judge Brennan said: ‘This country has an honourable tradition of peaceful protest.

‘What you did was assault a police constable who was on duty causing him a serious injury.’

Shafiq was also ordered to pay the injured officer £200 in compensation.

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