A PENSIONER with dementia has been cleared of kicking a police officer who went to his home to arrest him for making nuisance phone calls.

Peter Caraher was sat in an arm chair when the two officers let themselves into the back door of his home in Newton Abbot after he had refused to let them in and told them to **** off.

He was abusive towards them as they approached his chair and their body worn cameras recorded him jabbing at one with his stick, which the officer grabbed in an attempt to disarm him.

The second constable then moved to the other side of Caraher who responded by pushing out his right leg,  which made contact with his shin.

The officer was not injured but there was a visible dirt mark on his trousers which came from Caraher’s shoe.

Caraher, aged 72, of Buckland Brake, was accused of assaulting an emergency worker in the incident at his home on January 22, 2021.

He suffers from dementia and his condition has deteriorated to such a degree that he was ruled to be unfit to plead when his case was heard in his absence at Exeter Crown Court.

He was tried under a special Mental Health Act procedure in which the jury were required to decide whether he had done the acts alleged, rather than reach a conventional verdict of guilty or not guilty.

They ruled that he had not assaulted the officer and Recorder Mr Mathew Turner dismissed the charge.

In a day and a half trial, Mr Herc Ashworth, prosecuting, said the two officers had visited Caraher earlier in the morning to check on his welfare.

They returned to the house shortly after midday after receiving information about phone calls which Caraher had made which led to a decision to arrest him.

Their body worn cameras showed them entering through the back door, for which they had a key, and then going to a chair where Caraher was sat with a walking stick by his side.

The footage showed him picking up the stick and prodding it at one officer, who grabbed it, and then aiming a kick at the other as he moved closer to him. He was then arrested.

Mr William Parkhill, defending, said the footage did not show a clear assault by Caraher and the contact may have been the result of an instinctive reaction rather than a deliberate act.