Man awarded £11,000 over unlawful strip search

A “wholly innocent” man who was strip searched by police at his family home is to be awarded £11,000 in damages after a judge ruled on Tuesday that the search was unlawful.

Officers were sent to the property in Portadown, County Armagh, in September 2017 after Royal Mail staff intercepted a package which smelled of cannabis.

The package was addressed to someone with the same surname and first initial as the plaintiff, the High Court heard.

The man’s father, who has the same name, returned to the house shortly after the strip search and the court heard he accepted responsibility for the drug-related materials.

The plaintiff’s father was subsequently prosecuted over a suspected cannabis-growing operation.

However, the plaintiff, who has not been named, sued the chief constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) over police actions on that day.

Acting on a search warrant, up to eight officers entered the house and initially detained the plaintiff while he was alone in the property.

The plaintiff claimed officers took him into the bathroom and asked him to strip so that his genitals and rear area could be inspected.

The plaintiff was not touched or subjected to any intimate internal search.

However, the judge told the court: “The search was clearly humiliating for the plaintiff. He was wholly innocent.”

The man’s lawyers sued the PSNI for false imprisonment and trespass to the person over both his arrest and search.

The judge ruled that the brief period of detention was lawful and appropriate, having taken evidence from the officer who arrested the plaintiff after cannabis-growing materials were discovered.

However, he ruled that the strip search breached the Police and Criminal Evidence (NI) Order 1989.

“Since no evidence…was given about the rationale behind the decision to strip search the plaintiff, I cannot find that the search was appropriate,” Mr Justice Simpson said.

The plaintiff told the court that following the incident he had trouble sleeping and started drinking heavily.

The judge attributed the man’s increased alcohol intake to his lifestyle at the time, but also accepted that he had suffered an adjustment disorder after the search.

“I find that the plaintiff had some previous, mild psychiatric vulnerability and this event caused him humiliation and distress,” the judge said.

“For the unlawful search I award the plaintiff £3,500 and for the psychiatric damage I award £7,500.

“The total award is, therefore, £11,000.”