Five Met officers 'brawled with public on South Bank after boozy Christmas party'

Five Metropolitan Police officers are accused of brawling with members of the public by the Royal Festival Hall on London’s South Bank after a boozy Christmas party, a court has heard.

PC Max Michaels-Dubois, 32, PC Dan Dean, 37, PC Alex Fackeral, 30, PC Jack Sparkes, 32, and PC Kellsey Millar, 31, are all accused of affray in the incident on December 1 last year.

Millar is also assaulting and injuring a nightclub bouncer, while Sparkes allegedly grabbed hold of a second security guard during the incident.

The five officers, from the Met’s Taskforce, lined up together in the dock at Westminster magistrates court on Wednesday.

“On December 1, all the defendants had been at a Christmas celebration”, said prosecutor Nathan Paine-Davy.

It is said Fackeral was the victim of an assault on Jubilee Bridge at around 11pm, and around half an hour later there was a “large scale fight” outside the Royal Festival Hall.

The defendants are accused of “attacking members of a group” believed to be involved in the injuries sustained earlier by Fackeral, the court heard.

It is said they were all “intoxicated” at the time of the incident.

Other Met Police officers were called out to reports of fighting in the street, and criminal charges have now been brought by the Crown Prosecution Service.

The five defendants all pleaded not guilty to affray on Wednesday, while Millar denied assault occasioning actual bodily harm and Sparkes denied assault by beating.

They elected a trial by jury, and the case was adjourned by District Judge Louisa Cieciora until a hearing at Inner London crown court on July 24.

Millar and Sparkes, who both live in Surrey, Michaels-Dubois and Dean, both from Kent, and Fackeral, of Sutton, were all released on unconditional bail until the next court hearing.

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