Police officer acquitted of assaulting former footballer Dalian Atkinson before his death

Monk, 43, was sentenced to eight years in prison in July 2021 after forensic evidence showed he had kicked Atkinson at least twice in the head after putting him on the ground with a taser.

The new trial was told the retired footballer, 48, who was capped by the England B-team and also played for Sheffield Wednesday and Ipswich Town, was looking forward to private health treatment which was to begin the day he was unlawfully murdered.

He lost consciousness shortly after being tasered near his childhood home in Meadow Close, Trench, and died in hospital about an hour later.

Bettley-Smith and Monk, who were in a relationship at the time, had been dispatched to the scene to restrain Mr Atkinson after his mental state became disrupted, probably due to a buildup of toxins linked to kidney failure.

Prosecutors alleged that Bettley-Smith lost her cool and “pounded” a “defenceless” Mr Atkinson with a baton, inflicting actual bodily harm which they accepted did not contribute to his death.

In her evidence in court, Bettley-Smith said she used the baton because she noticed the ex-footballer still posed a threat of “serious harm” after being tasered a third time.

Bettley-Smith told her trial that she was “trembling from head to toe” and was sure she would have suffered damage if Mr. Atkinson had managed to get up.

She told the jury she believed she had lawfully used her baton as a last resort when she desperately tried to control Mr Atkinson, who she said was “actively resisting and trying to stand up”.

The probationary officer, who is six feet tall, claimed to be terrified, said the incident was the only time she had pulled her baton during her full-time service, which had begun six months earlier.

Mr Atkinson had not flinched during two out of three taser deployments and appeared to feel no pain when he smashed a window.

“I thought he was trying to stand up and fight,” she told the court. “In my opinion, he was trying to get up on his hands and knees.

“I was terrified that Mr. Atkinson would get up. I was terrified to even get close to him because I thought I would be seriously injured if he stood up.

“If I could have done anything to not use my baton that night, I would have done it. There was no anger or I lost my cool.”

Bettley-Smith, a social worker graduate, said she had felt overwhelmed when she heard of Mr. Atkinson’s death and that the feelings had not gotten any easier over the past six years.

“I live it every day,” she said.