Special constable guilty of 'excessive assault'

An assault on a drunken off-duty soldier by a special constable was "violent, excessive and unjustified", the police watchdog has said.

Peter Lightfoot, 40, was found guilty by a jury of assaulting Lance Corporal Mark Aspinall after they viewed CCTV footage of him pushing his head into the ground and striking him with a police helmet.

The attack on the soldier, who served in Afghanistan and Iraq, happened in the early hours of July 27, 2008 outside a bar in Wigan, Greater Manchester.