A policeman who was sentenced to six months' imprisonment after he was convicted of an assault charge has been freed by the Court of Appeal.

Constable Gregory Givans was on bail pending the outcome of his appeal against his conviction and sentence. He was convicted in April last year, of assault occa-sioning actual bodily harm.

Givans, who was represented by attorney-at-law Leroy Equiano, had appealed on grounds that the dock identification was flawed, because it was three years after the alleged incident that he was pointed out in court.

Conviction quashed

Equiano argued that the resident magistrate should not have relied upon such identification to convict Givans.

The Court of Appeal, comprising Justices Howard Cooke, Hazel Harris and Dennis Morrison, upheld the submissions Wednesday and quashed the conviction.

Givans was charged following an incident at the Mountain View Police Station in February 2005. A motorist complained that he was involved in an accident with a policeman and they both decided to report the matter at a police station. They went to the Mountain View Police Station, where Givans was on station-guard duty.

Motorist's account

The motorist said the policeman began giving an account as to how the accident occurred and when he disagreed with the account, Givans kicked him in the face.

Givans did not know the name of the policeman who attacked him, and when Givans made enquiries, a policeman told him that the name of his attacker was Constable Lauder. He also gave him a badge number.

When the trial began in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate's Court in 2008, the motorist pointed out Givans while he was in the dock as the man who assaulted him. Givans had denied assaulting the motorist.