YESTERDAY The Argus reported on the case of Firas Albaja, who was awarded more than £15,000 compensation from Sussex Police after he was pepper sprayed by a PC on a night out.

The case is disquieting on a number of levels. Investigators from the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) published a damning report into the incident and called on the force to launch legal proceedings against the officer, Joanne Sturgess.

The IPCC found that Mr Albaja was doing nothing wrong and did not deserve to be assaulted by an officer of the law in this way.

It was simply disgraceful that an ambulance called to his house was stood down by the police and disturbing that Ms Sturgess’ evidence was not backed up by CCTV evidence of the incident.

We accept that police officers often find themselves in difficult situations which are hard to call. It is not an easy job. But no-one can be above the law. Although here it appears that a police officer was, in effect, just so.

There are questions about why it took so long to investigate Mr Albaja’s complaint. Because of the delay the PC was outside the time limit to face an assault charge.

But even more central here is why it was down to police to decide to refer the perverting the course of justice case to crown prosecutors for consideration.

Not surprisingly the force decided not to. But it cannot be judge and jury here. The sensible thing would have been to remove itself from any perception of taint in this matter and refer straight to prosecutors who are well able to decide if there is a case to answer. It would appear to be a fault of the system that allows police to decide on an investigation into a member of their own force.

If the rules need changing they should be and quickly.