Police apologise for tasering white ex-ballet dancer, 80, mistaken for black suspect in his 30s

An 80-year-old white ex-ballet dancer mistaken for a black suspect in his 30s and tasered in his kitchen has finally received a public apology from police chiefs.

Roy Morton was woken on December 28 by officers armed with sub-machine guns who smashed through his front door, tasered him, pinned him to the floor and handcuffed him after allegedly mixing up his address.

Chief Superintendent Philip Ryan, from Scotland Yard’s specialist firearms command, said: ‘I am deeply sorry that this terrible error occurred and I apologise wholeheartedly to Mr Morton.’ 

Roy Morton (pictured) – who suffers from a heart condition – was woken on December 28 by officers armed with sub-machine guns who smashed through his front door, tasered him, pinned him to the floor and handcuffed him after allegedly mixing up his address

He said a team is investigating what happened but Mr Morton, from Cricklewood, north-west London, said the apology was superficial and he is ‘still very shaken’.

He said: ‘I don’t go outside. I just stay indoors now with the curtains shut.

‘I feel like an old man for the first time in my life.’

Describing the moment armed officers burst into his kitchen at 7am, Mr Morton told the Daily Mail earlier this month: ‘I was wearing my pyjamas just standing there on the tiled floor wondering desperately what the hell was going on.

‘At least four police in full gear carrying machine guns were shining dazzling bright torches in my face, all shouting and screaming something unintelligible at me. They gave me no instructions, nothing.

The 80-year-old white ex-ballet dancer, who was mistaken for a black suspect in his 30s, has finally received a public apology from police chiefs. Pictured: Mr Morton on tour in Barcelona

‘Suddenly one of them fired this Taser at me and the electricity started zapping. It hit me in the stomach and the top of my leg and I fell to the floor of the kitchen, helpless.

‘Then they jumped on me, kneeling on my back to pin me onto the tiled floor, twisting my arms behind my back and handcuffing me and telling me I was under arrest for affray.’

Describing his ‘state of shock and confusion’, he said officers then watched him get dressed and go to the toilet before taking him away. 

Mr Morton – who was fitted with a pacemaker 25 years ago for a condition called heart block – said he was taken to the Royal Free Hospital in north London after the arrest to have the device examined.

He was later transferred to Colindale Police Station in a ‘filthy’ police van where he was told about the mix-up.