After showing Toni the latest footage that was handed to the commissioner Nicholas Long and a chief investigating officer, Toni said “ I want the police officer to pay for what he’s done to me and my family.  It is not just out of respect for me, but for other people out there that may find themselves in a similar situation”.

Q. A lot of criticism has been made about your health, how does that make you feel?

A.  “I have just been officially diagnosed with epilepsy and a lot of things in my life have changed for me. I am lucky if I can go for two weeks or so now without an episode.”

It is hard for me now, all the things I wanted to do, learn to drive, get a car, meet people my own age, I had opportunities. My profession as a carer is ended, I was qualified as a Care Assistant at 18, I trained from leaving school, all of this now has gone out of the window, it’s all just a memory.

My son has kept me going, he is my reason for being able to stay strong.

Q. Do you still have attacks?

A.  I have them all the time now, I am lucky if I go for two weeks or so now without one.

Ruggie Johnson of the Monitoring group North broke his silence at the start of this investigation and said :-

"The referral to my client !It’s not the size of dog in the fight, it’s the amount of fight in the dog". At the very least deserves an immediate apology but unfortunately this list goes on".

Custody records do not match the statement made by police officers.

There were other officers who took part in the assault on Toni & this needs to be addressed.

I hope that with this case being put in the public eye that it will be dealt with openly.
We have seen the footage now let us see the justice!

Interview with the father of Toni Comer, the young girl that was seen graphically beaten by police in Sheffield England.
Ruggie Johnson 2007-06-21

My Daughter cuffed and beaten by the South Yorkshire Police.

Just because we are young parents does not mean we have not got some ‘old fashioned values”, we as parents did not hide the fact we were disappointed with what our daughter Toni has done. Both my partner and I have reached 39 years of age living in Sheffield without any involvement with the police, so we will not accept any excuses from either of our kids. Toni has committed a crime and as far as we are concerned must be punished and she would agree with that statement, as her father I have no sympathy, you do the crime you do the time.

You should have more things going on in your life than to be in trouble with the police. However having said that, we do take exception to the fact that we like many parents would not have been any the wiser as to why and how and in what manner our daughter was arrested until seeing the c.c.tv footage.

If PC Mulhall had actually been witness to our daughter committing criminal damage I suppose we could have understood why he used that level of force, but it still would have been excessive in our eyes, but maybe more understandable if that makes sense. The public have their own opinion and we are trying to look at this without bias, obviously other people have got their own agendas,but as far as we the parents of Toni keep saying this is not about Race or Money. It is about a Police officer who we feel has let us and himself down badly in a “one off” situation and has had months to speak to Toni or to us about that night.

We would have had much more respect for him and the police force for being honest and up front which they have failed so far to do. The headline was I had no choice, neither do we, should we have just ignored it and said he was just doing his job or like any parent or victim want to know the facts good or bad. What happened to being Innocent until proven guilty? We think hand on heart PC Mulhall had a choice, that choice was to be calm in that situation, not to inflame it. We believe our daughter should not have had to go through a beating for something she may or may not have done, at that time. Where are we going to draw the line in what is acceptable when restraining someone whom in this case happened to be a young woman.

Click here to see the article from 'The Guardian'

Go to the TMGN Discussion Forum and discuss the incident.

The embarrassment and shame of committing a crime in the first place would have been punishment enough for our daughter, not to suffer this and then for people to be hurtful with their comment like the letter my partner and I received, telling us how this country has been good enough to take our family in! I am also an ignorant father, who has a poor excuse for a daughter among other things. My daughter has worked since the age of sixteen and was not on benefits until last year, I have worked in many jobs since the same age. My partner has had epilepsy for over fourteen years, so as regards epilepsy we are no experts but we do know what we are talking about and yes we are blue in the face telling our daughter of the dangers, which parent would not, the unfortunate thing for her is that it has taken something like this to convince her to do something about it instead of as most teenagers do and adults alike pretend they’re ok and can handle it.

There is no handling epilepsy it handles you and the person who cares for you, if you are lucky you just have to make the best of it. My partner and I have both seen my daughter having a bad seizure on our kitchen floor so we know she is epileptic we don’t need convincing. My partner and I have said even though it was a week before her birthday if you had not gone out it would not have happened, as most kids say I am only 19, I am only enjoying myself. This has not been an enjoyable time for her or for us, because we as parents expect her to show a better example. What example will the police set?

Leroy, now that you have seen even more footage from that night tell me what do You think of it?

The thing is we would like an explanation, it’s obviously something that I have seen on cctv and as parents we cannot ignore what we expect as a full and proper investigation.

It is a question the police need to be honest about. From the cctv footage it looks to me and my partner like Toni may have already been handcuffed. I would say with the body language of the first officer and the other officers that the situation was already under control when Toni was being brutally punched.

Was Toni handcuffed before the beating she received?

We should also add that we are told those punches had been directed to the upper arm in order to handcuff her, not only this but our daughter suffers with epilepsy and her fits have increased since this incident happened nearly one year ago. The added stress of all this has also had a knock on effect with my partner whose fits have also increased. I would say this has also affected our 14 year old son and his attitude.

I would just like to get this over and done with, I know the might sound strange but we would rather PC Mulhall or a spokesperson on behalf of the South Yorkshire Police would have taken the time and shown some decency to have spoken to us in person about the incident that happened on the 30th July 2006. I think you would have found that we and others would have had more respect with a little honesty and a belief in South Yorkshire Police to do the right thing.