Shock and Outrage: What Police Said Just Moments Before Pepper-Spraying and Tasering a 92-Year-Old Amputee in Care Home

So here’s a head-scratcher for you: when does pepper spray stop being a necessary tool and start feeling like a punchline? Picture this—a 92-year-old amputee in a care home, wielding a cutlery knife and threatening staff. The cops arrive, and within just 83 seconds, he’s been pepper-sprayed, tasered, and struck with a baton. Oh, and if that weren’t intense enough, one officer actually joked about the “pepper spray special” right after. What’s going on when force meets farce in such a delicate situation? PC Stephen Smith and PC Rachel Comotto stand accused of using excessive force on Donald Burgess at the Park Beck care home in East Sussex last June, opening a courtroom drama filled with tough questions about judgment, necessity, and humanity. And while both officers insist their actions were proportionate, the jurors are left to decide if things went too far. Seems like a plot twist nobody wanted—especially given that Burgess, wheelchair-bound and fragile, died just weeks later after contracting Covid. It’s a clash of duty versus dignity, pepper spray quips versus serious consequences… and a reminder that sometimes, the hardest battles aren’t the ones you expect. LEARN MORE

A police officer ‘joked’ about using pepper spray after they tasered an amputee in a care home, a court has heard.

PC Stephen Smith, 51, and PC Rachel Comotto, 36, have been accused of using excessive force on Donald Burgess, 92, at a care home in East Sussex in June 2022.

Burgess was sprayed in the face with pepper spray and tasered at Park Beck care home within 83 seconds of officers entering his room, jurors were told at Southwark Crown Court.

It comes after the wheelchair user had been threatening staff with a cutlery knife and telling them he would murder them.

“Put the knife down mate, or you will be sprayed or tasered. That’s up to you,” Smith can allegedly be heard saying in the police footage.

However, prosecutors have argued that, given Burgess’ age, excessive force was used after the court heard Smith used a full canister of Pava spray and struck Burgess with a baton, while Comotto used her taser.

PC Rachel Comotto, 36, broke down in tears in court on Friday (23 May) (PA)

Burgess was taken to hospital and died 22 days later at the age of 93 after contracting Covid.

Smith has denied two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, while Comotto denies one count for discharging her taser.

In police body-cam footage following the incident, Comotto allegedly asks Smith: “Oh my God, is there any left in your can?”

“Probably not,” he replied.

Smith later referred to the incident as a ‘stand off’ when asked by another officer if he used the ‘smithy special’.

“Even after spraying he clutched on to it (the knife) to the point where I was going to knock it out of his hands,” he said.

“Just a stand-off with him – gave him all the options.”

Burgess was taken to hospital and died 22 days later at the age of 93 after contracting Covid (Family handout)

Comotto is also said to have told a care home manager after the incident: “We don’t like doing that at all, but what can you do?”

On Friday (23 May) force expert Ian Mills told the court: “No tactic is without risk. You have to make that decision very rapidly.

“With the benefit of hindsight, people might say they would have done this or that – but we don’t know.

“He could have turned the knife on himself.

“The officer made a decision to take viable action and use the taser.”

Comotto – who broke down in tears – said to the jurors: “I honestly believed the taser was necessary.

“It was proportionate because other tactics had failed. If I didn’t act, something worse could happen.

“I saw PC Smith raise his baton up and I believed at that point he was going to strike Mr Burgess with his baton.”

“I’m not a trigger-happy officer,” she added. “It’s the first time I’ve fired my taser.”