The UK’s police watchdog has launched an investigation into the Metropolitan Police after officers pointed a taser at a “distressed” 91-year-old woman who was bound with handcuffs and covered with a spit hood. Officers with the service restrained the woman – who suffers from dementia – in early May as they attended an incident in Peckham, southeast London, where she was having a public dispute with her carer. The woman was allegedly left with cuts and bruising to both wrists and an arm after she was handcuffed, and the Independent Office for Police Conduct is investigating.

The Met Police said officers were called to “reports of a disturbance” at the woman’s home in St George’s Way on May 9.

They found she was “distressed” and arguing with her carer.

One of the attending officers claimed she spat on them, leading them to apply extra restraints, including a mesh spit hood.

According to the Met, they also aimed a taser at the elderly woman in a “red-dot challenge.”

The Sun reported she was stretchered away, with one neighbour telling the publication they heard “crying and screaming.”

The neighbour said, while looking out their window, they saw her “strapped down on a stretcher.”

They counted two police cars and a van at the scene, adding: “You would think with all those people they would be able to manage it without tying her down.”

The IOPC has since launched an investigation into the events of the incident.

The organisation said it suspended one officer – who is prohibited from using a taser as the investigation continues – with five others placed on restricted duties without public contact.

A member of the woman’s family was allowed to watch footage of the incident captured by the officers’ body-worn video cameras.

The Met said: “Police are in contact with them and arranged for a family member to view body-worn video of the incident.”

Detective Chief Superintendent Seb Adjei-Addoh said it was clear that the experience will have been “distressing” for the woman involved and that the circumstances “raise a number of questions that need to be answered”.

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He added that he didn’t “wish to pre-judge this process”, but said that officers must “justify any use of force or restraint”

Det Ch Supt Adjei-Addoh said that the Met Police expects personnel to “show compassion and to adjust their approach in real-time according to the circumstances they are faced with.”

He concluded: “I am committed to transparency in relation to this incident.

“I am already in contact with our key partners and will keep them, and those directly involved, informed as our inquiries progress.”

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