Corey Clarke v The Chief Constable of Northumbria Police

For an arrest under section 24 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984, reasonable suspicion must relate to the particular offence for which the arrest is made. Proof, a prima facie case, or a reasonably thorough investigation is unnecessary at that stage.

The separate necessity requirement imposes a comparatively high threshold. The court must assess the actual grounds available to the officer when the decision was made, objectively and without hindsight. Where the suspect is a child at school, the statutory guidance creates a strong presumption against arrest. Arrest will generally be reasonable only where it is unavoidable and a genuine last resort.

The appellant, aged 16, was arrested at school by a police constable who suspected him of possessing an indecent image of a child. He was handcuffed, transported to a police station and detained for approximately seven and a half hours.

Following a jury trial, the County Court found that the officer had reasonable suspicion, reasonable grounds for believing arrest necessary, and justification for the handcuffing and detention. The claim for false imprisonment and assault was dismissed. The appellant appealed, challenging the suspicion, necessity, arrest at school, handcuffing and duration of detention.

1. Appeal allowed. The arrest was unlawful because, although the officer had reasonable suspicion of the particular offence, arresting the appellant at school was neither unavoidable nor a last resort.
2. Under section 24(2) of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984, reasonable suspicion concerns the particular offence for which the arrest is made. Suspicion is materially below belief and does not require proof or a prima facie case. The information relied upon must exist when the decision is made. A reasonably thorough investigation is not a prerequisite: O’Hara v Chief Constable of the Royal Ulster Constabulary [1996] UKHL 6; [1997] AC 286; Buckley v Chief Officer of the Thames Valley Police [2009] EWCA Civ 356; West Yorkshire v Armstrong [2008] EWCA Civ 1518.
3. Section 24(4) requires reasonable grounds for believing that arrest is necessary. The threshold is comparatively high. The court must examine the grounds actually available to and relied upon by the officer at the time, reviewed objectively. Alternatives are relevant, but the officer is not required to consider every conceivable alternative: Rashid v Chief Constable of West Yorkshire [2020] EWHC 2522 (QB); Hayes v Chief Constable of Merseyside Police [2012] 1 WLR 517.
4. When the suspect is a child, and particularly when the arrest is at a place of education, the assessment is narrower. Code C and Code G provide that a juvenile should not be arrested at school unless that is unavoidable. Read with the child-welfare context, including article 37 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and section 11(2)(a) of the Children Act 2004, arrest is a measure of last resort. Considering alternatives is insufficient unless the facts show that arrest at school could not reasonably be avoided. The approach in ST v The Chief Constable of Nottinghamshire Police [2022] EWHC 1280 (QB) supported that conclusion, although the present facts and competing safeguarding concerns required separate assessment.
5. Because the arrest was unlawful, the associated handcuffing and detention were also unlawful. Had the arrest been lawful, the minimum handcuffing required for transport would have been justified by the identified risk of harm, and the detention would have been justified to obtain the appellant’s account and coordinate release to an appropriate adult. That counterfactual reasoning was unnecessary to the result.

• High Court (King’s Bench Division): On appeal from the County Court at Newcastle, Mr Justice Kimblin allowed the appeal against the order made by His Honour Judge Hanbury on 6 November 2024.
• County Court at Newcastle: Following a jury trial, the claim for damages for false imprisonment and assault was dismissed.
• Permission to appeal: Granted by Lavender J on 3 March 2025.