ABSTRACT
Late one night in 1979, a man called Ya Ya Pedro was standing by the door of his brother’s house in London. Another man, Martin Diss, came up to him, identified himself as a police officer, and asked Pedro what he was doing there. Pedro walked away without answering. When Constable Diss repeated his question, Pedro told him to ‘fuck off. Eventually he allowed himself to be searched, but when the policeman began to question him about some keys that he found in his pockets, Pedro walked away again. Constable Diss grabbed him by the arm and said, ‘Do you live here?’ Pedro replied with another obscenity and swung backwards, striking the constable in his chest with an elbow. As he did this, the constable took hold of his clothing, and Pedro punched him. He was eventually restrained with the assistance of two other officers, and they arrested Pedro and charged him with assaulting a constable in the execution of his duty.
