Happy days for the two police officers who pepper sprayed and tasered a 92-year-old disabled care home resident in East Sussex – they have unanimously been found not guilty by a jury. Shocker!

Here’s the unedited footage of the incident in case you missed it in our blog the other week (warning = distressing footage):

Cop who tasered 92-year-old pensioner in care home says she treated him with the ‘utmost respect’ Here’s the officer in action https://t.co/8gyvqo6Yhh pic.twitter.com/LCEpoBLyyA

— CourtNewsUK (@CourtNewsUK) May 21, 2025

PC Stephen Smith and PC Rachel Comotto were responding to a call at a care home in St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex, on 21 June 2022. Staff called police after Donald Burgess, who had one leg, was seen poking a care worker in the stomach with a cutlery knife.

After being hit with pepper spray, a taser and a baton, Burgess was taken to hospital, where he contracted Covid and died 22 days later.

PC Stephen Smith and PC Rachel Comotto had been charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm, but have now been cleared of their actions. It took jurors two hours of deliberations to find the pair not guilty.

Specifically, PC Smith was found not guilty on two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm for his use of pepper spray and using a baton on Burgess. PC Comotto was found not guilty for using her taser on the 92-year-old.

So how lucky are these two police officers to actually get away with what they did? Using pepper spray, a taser and a baton on a seated, one-legged 92-year-old does seem a tad OTT, especially as it all happened within 83 seconds of entering Burgess’s room.

Their argument however is that said 92-year-old man was holding a butter knife, and was a danger to himself and others. For what it’s worth, the officers also claim they didn’t realise Burgess was disabled.

Even still, there must’ve been a way of dealing with it that didn’t involve throwing the kitchen sink at the man. Couldn’t they have just chucked a blanket on him, shut the door, and let him sleep it off? I guess it’s too late for that now. RIP Donald Burgess.

To watch a bounty hunter taser a guy after his girlfriend spat at him, click HERE. Warranted?