A judge has condemned an apparent police assault on a soldier who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Lance Corporal Mark Aspinall, 24, was thrown to the ground by three uniformed officers after a night out with friends and punched eight times.

The violent arrest - caught on CCTV - shocked a crown court judge, who called it appalling.

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But astonishingly Lance Corporal Aspinall was himself hauled before the courts and convicted of assaulting the police.

He was sentenced to 200 hours community service and even ordered to pay compensation to the officers.

His ordeal ended only when Judge John Phipps watched the damning CCTV footage and quashed the verdict on appeal.

Judge Phipps said: 'I am shocked and appalled at the level of police violence shown here.'
Last night, Mr Aspinall - who served for seven years in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers - said: 'I was scared for mylife. I remember thinking, 'I'm going to die here. I can't believe I've survived Afghanistan and Iraq and and now I'm going to die on this main road in my home town at the hands of the police'.

'Yet I was the one who ended up in the dock, not the officers.'

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