MARK McLAUGHLIN
Evening News (Edinburgh)
July 22, 2010, Thursday
A CRAZED knifeman who held a nurse hostage in her own home had to be brought down with a rubber bullet after a Taser failed to subdue him.
The Evening News told earlier this week how the controversial weapon was used on Rafal Swiderski after he had held 51-year-old nurse Mary Johnston at knifepoint for more than four hours.
It has now emerged that it failed to hit the target and officers were given permission to use the baton round before deploying the Taser again.
The case is only second time either weapon has been used by Lothian and Borders Police, and is the first time they have been deployed together.
Officers today defended the move as they told how 20-year-old Swiderski had turned his aggression towards firearms officers during the incident, threatening them with a knife and a broken bottle.
Chief Superintendent Charlie Common, head of operations for Lothian and Borders Police, said the decision to fire a Taser came after several hours of negotiations failed and Swiderski began charging at them with the knife.
The weapon failed when only one of the electrical barbs struck Swiderski. Both barbs needed to connect in order to complete the circuit and send a 50,000-volt charge through the knifeman's body.
Swiderski retreated into Ms Johnston's Broxburn home and re-emerged with a broken bottle and began charging at officers again.
Chief Supt Common said: "A baton round was discharged, which temporarily stunned the suspect, however, he picked up the broken glass again and as he did so a Taser was discharged at him. As a result, he was subdued and arrested.
"In view of the circumstances faced, the use of both Taser and baton round were considered to have been entirely appropriate."
The use of Tasers hit the headlines again following the shooting of Raoul Moat which has raised fresh controversy about their use.
Amnesty International, which is calling for a pilot project in Strathclyde where 30 ordinary officers have been issued with Tasers to be abandoned, said it supported the force.
John Watson, the organisation's programme director for Scotland, said: "Our position on Tasers is that we accept that they have a part to play in policing, particularly in incidents like this one where they were dealing with a violent individual posing a risk to life.
"We have no complaints about the use of Taser in this case because they were being used by trained firearms officers. Tasers are firearms and they should only be used by trained firearms officers.
"However, we have serious concerns about the scheme in Strathclyde which has lowered the threshold over what incidents they can be used for."
Ms Johnston, whose ordeal on May 22 this year began when she awoke to find Swiderski in her home, has also backed the officers who brought her attacker into custody. She had been barricaded inside until she managed to secretly text a plea for police help.
Swiderski was remanded in custody pending background reports after pleading guilty last week.
CONTROVERSIAL WEAPONS
The last time a baton round was used before the Swiderski case was in West Linton, on December 13, 2005, after a man fired an airgun at officers as they surrounded his home. It was the first time the weapon had been used since the force began trialling its in 2003.
Two years later, on May 10 2007, police used a Taser, introduced the previous year, for the first time to stop a man who rampaged through Bar 53, in Broxburn's East Main Street, armed with two machetes.
Human rights group Amnesty International is mounting a legal challenge to a pilot scheme in Strathclyde to arm 30 regular beat officers with Tasers, as opposed to authorised firearms officers, amid links to almost 300 deaths in North America.
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