A Kingskerswell police constable who beat up a handcuffed prisoner in the back of a squad car has lost his appeal against the conviction.

Thirty-four-year-old Frederick Ashen was found guilty of battery after his police partner on the night of the incident blew the whistle on him.

Wpc Rebecca Young said she and Ashen were called to a violent incident on Torquay harbourside which involved about 40 people. Of that number three were arrested and put in a police van but another man made off. Shortly after that they were called to Vaughan Parade and that was where Peter Harrison was arrested by Ashen and put in the back of the police car.

She then drove to Torquay police station and into the car compound. Wpc Young said she got out of the driver's seat and levered it forward expecting Ashen and Harrison to get out.

'I was looking through the door when Ashen made a sudden movement towards Harrison pulling his head down into his lap,' said Wpc Young. 'I then heard and saw five consecutive punches to the mouth area and the back of the head.'

She told the appeal hearing that the incident lasted about three seconds and they were alternate hard punches with left and right fists.

'I heard the thuds and there was a great deal of force used,' said WPC Young. 'I could see no justification for what happened. Ashen then got out of the vehicle, walked round the car and then yanked Harrison out of the back seat. His eyes were closed and he was motionless. Then Ashen pushed him against the car and the wing mirror broke and was left hanging off. The car was covered in blood and Harrison was covered in blood. There had not been any blood in the car before this. Harrison had a one centimetre cut to his lip with dried blood on it but that was all.'

The Wpc said she did not discuss the incident with Ashen because she knew there would be an investigation after she reported what she had seen.

'I was very shocked by what I had seen and when I got home I made some notes while the incident was still fresh in my mind. I took the decision to report what I had seen to a senior officer on the night it happened and told Sgt Mark Marshall when I went on my next shift,' said Wpc Young.

Cross-examined by Michael Fitton for Ashen, Wpc Young denied a suggestion that she had imagined the assault by her brother officer.

Mr Fitton put it her: 'From your getting out of the car to what seeing what happened next Harrison had made a move to headbutt Pc Ashen and you saw him put up his left arm to protect himself.'

'No that is not what happened,' said Wpc Young.

'Pc Ashen's left arm was up in defence and he used his right arm to pull Harrison down into his lap and then pulled his face away from him and you heard the slapping sound of an open palm,' suggested Mr Fitton.

'No he punched him five times,' said Wpc Young. 'I have described what I saw which was close quarters punches.'

Mr Harrison said he could remember nothing of what happened in the police car but agreed that he had sustained a broken jaw in the earlier incident which led to his arrest. He also agreed that he was bleeding heavily at the time he was arrested but denied he was planning to headbutt Pc Ashen.

 'I can't see that I was going to headbutt him with a broken jaw,' said Mr Harrison.

Ashen denied the allegations by Wpc Young that he had punched the prisoner but said he had used the flat of his hand to fend off what he foresaw as an attempt to headbutt him by Harrison after they arrived at the police station.

The incident happened in April 2000 and Ashen has been suspended since the allegations were made against him by Wpc Young.

Mr Fitton said the failure of the appeal would mean that Ashen would lose his job with the Devon and Cornwall police.

Judge Paul Darlow said the incident was 'a momentary lapse in what had otherwise been an unblemished career.'

Ashen of Millstone, Coles Lane, Kingskerswell had pleaded not guilty to the battery charge but was convicted after a two- day hearing in Exeter before a district judge.

He was sentenced to four months' imprisonment but Judge Darlow varied that to one of four months' imprisonment suspended for two years.