You will no doubt have seen social media footage and / or mainstream media coverage of the case of a man on the London Underground who was subject to a use of force by members of the public. I’m deliberately not widening distribution of that footage – it’s easy enough to find if you’re determined enough to see it. Suffice to say the camera-film starts with a man near the doors of a tube train, trousers ’round his ankles and his genitals and backside fully explosed. It leads to the attention of a man on the carriage who becomes aggressive very quickly and without much discussion it escalates to him and others forcing the man from the carriage on to a platform and restraining him.
But before we start with that lot, the story for that man ends with him being detained under the Mental Health ACt 1983 and admitted to hospital.
So let’s untangle what we have so far –
- Taking your trousers down in public – packed Tube train or not – can amount to one or more criminal offences. Apart from the obviously indecent exposure potential, it could also amount to a public order offence.
- As such, section 3 of the Criminal Law Act 1967 entitles anyone to intervene by use of reasonable force to prevent crime (or its continuance).
- Then obviously, if someone is seriously mentally ill, it may give rise to questions about which offence is the appropriate one to think about and whether it is in the public interest to prosecute at all.
ARRESTED
We now know an off-duty British Transport Police officer was somewhere nearby, became involved after th man was removed to the platform and arrested him, presumably for an offence but I’m yet to see that confirmed. If they believed the grounds for using section 136 MHA were satisfied, that would have been an option, but in fairness to the officer, we don’t know how much they saw of the beginning of the incident, the use of force by the men on the carriage so we don’t know whether it would have been reasonable for them to think s136 was a preferred option – and it may not have been.
There has been a number of reactions to this –
- Some have offered congratulations to the men for intervening.
- Some have offered criticism of their use of force and suggested it was excessive.
- Some have linked this to immigrant crime but I’m yet to see anything, anywhere which confirms immigration status one way or the other.
INVESTIGATED
The incident is now under investigation, by which I mean British Transport Police have launched an investigation of whether the men who used force on the man who was later sectioned, have committed assaults by their use of force. That will be for the investigating officers to decide and as it’s under investigation I’ll keep my opinion to myself. Suffice to say this: I can see why British Transport Police have launched an investigation and doing so does not mean one thing or another – it means they need a detailed investigation to determine what occurred.
Incidental observation by me: I couldn’t help but notice the members of the public placed this man face down on the platform and he remained in that position for a while. This means they were drifting towards the risk of more serious, restraint-related complications from their intervention and it wouldn’t be the first time non-police officers have started restraining someone for it to end very badly. Mzee Mohammed-Daley was initially restrained by security staff in the Liverpool One shopping centre in 2018, that restraint later taken over by Merseyside Police who immediately called an ambulance based on what they saw when they first turned up.
So in a hypothetical case where hypothetical people undertake a restraint which is excessive, if the person dies as a result of that restraint, it the creates obvious potential for the investigation to be manslaughter, not just assault. I’m sure we’ll hear the outcome soon enough and I can’t be the only person who saw that footage and immediately thought, “mental health incident” – nothing about the footage made me think the man on the carriage had even considered it.
Awarded the President’s Medal, by the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
Winner of the Mind Digital Media Award
All opinions expressed are my own – they do not represent the views of any organisation.
(c) Michael Brown, 2025
I am not a police officer.
I try to keep this blog up to date, but inevitably over time, amendments to the law as well as court rulings and other findings from inquests and complaints processes mean it is difficult to ensure all the articles and pages remain current. Please ensure you check all legal issues in particular and take appropriate professional advice where necessary.
Government legislation website – www.legislation.gov.uk
Mental Health Cop 