Sergeant Cleared of Assault

A police sergeant who was convicted of assaulting a woman prisoner and imprisoned for six months has had his appeal allowed. The original conviction and sentence was in front of a Deputy District Judge, and the appeal was, as usual, at the Crown Court. The judge was Mr. Justice Bean, no less, and he will have been sitting with two magistrates (not that any paper I have seen mentions that fact). It's quite an interesting case; tried in front of a deputy DJ, rather than a bench of three, then an appeal heard by a High Court judge with two lay justices.
(I'm now not too sure about that as today's list doesn't mention justices)
I have blogged about Bean J a few times, as I think that he is destined for great things. My first thought was that he had once again been brought in for a sensitive case, but the court list for tomorrow shows him sitting at Oxford again with two JPs.
Here is what I said about him previously.