Greater Manchester Police has been ordered to pay more than £5,000 damages to three young Bolton men after an incident in which one of them was badly bitten by a police dog.

The three men had taken out a private prosecution, claiming wrongful arrest by the police and alleging that a police officer had deliberately unleashed the Alsatian.

The allegations had been denied by GM Police and the dog handler.

A jury at Bolton Crown Court was told that Mark Brooks, who recently celebrated his 21st birthday, took several weeks to recover from dog bite injuries after PC Gary Mitchell set a police dog on him.

The jury ruled that Mark, of Station Road, Kearsley, and two friends, Dean Lawrie of Percy Street, Farnworth, and Lee Barlow of Worsley Road, Farnworth, were unlawfully arrested and detained. All three men were 16 when the incident happened in June, 1992 in Kearsley.

The court was told that the dog handler was dressed only in a boiler suit and did not identify himself as a policeman. Mark had been left with a phobia of dogs and open spaces and had avoided playing football in the park. A psychologist said he suffered from nightmares for a considerable period after the incident.

Mr Timothy White, prosecuting, claimed Mark had been goaded and taunted by the police while in custody and had been told the dog had recently bitten another suspect suffering from AIDS. The police had been pursuing three occupants of a stolen car which crashed nearby. The officers suspected the three youths had been involved in the theft.

But when the teenagers were apprehended they were not told they were under arrest until about 15 minutes later when they were confined in a van.

None of the boys had a criminal record and they were never charged with an offence following their arrests.

Mark received £3,500 compensation for the dog attack and £1000 for unlawful arrest. Dean Lawrie, a soldier who has recently returned from Bosnia, and Lee Barlow each received £250 for unlawful arrest.

All of the damages were said by the judge to be purely compensatory. None of them were punitive against the police.

After the hearing, Mark's mother Judith said all three men were "ecstatic" at their victory but were disappointed by the level of damages awarded by the jury. She said: "These were three lads who had never been in trouble to the police before and they were not known to them. They were totally innocent and yet they were treated in this way. But we took them on and won and we are ecstatic. Our barrister did a great job.

"But the damages which have been awarded are absolute rubbish. They in no way reflect the distress they have been put through."

A spokesman for Greater Manchester Police said it was not force policy to comment on court cases.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.