Overview

• Donald Burgess, a single-leg amputee and wheelchair user at Park Beck care home, was delirious from a urinary tract infection when he grabbed a knife and threatened staff in June 2022.
• PC Stephen Smith deployed synthetic Pava pepper spray and used a baton while PC Rachel Comotto discharged her Taser within 83 seconds of entering Burgess’s room to disarm him.
• Prosecutors said the force was excessive given Burgess’s age and condition, but the defence argued the officers’ response was proportionate to the immediate threat.
• After about two hours of deliberations on May 28, 2025, a jury unanimously cleared Smith of two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and Comotto of one count.
• Burgess was hospitalised after the incident, later contracted Covid-19, and died 22 days later with medical records finding no causal link to the police intervention.