A Huddersfield man with Asperger Syndrome was wrongly handcuffed by police who deleted footage of the incident ... and a formal inquiry also criticised the officers for then taking him home.

As a direct result West Yorkshire Police are now looking at providing more training at dealing with people with disorders such as Asperger Syndrome.

Police were alerted to 38-year-old James Henderson’s behaviour in a Huddersfield street.

Two officers approached the Oakes man and a female officer then made the decision to handcuff him.

Police watchdog ruled that officers were wrong to handcuff James Henderson who has Asperger's

The incident was filmed on her bodycam but that footage was not kept because there was a delay between Mr Henderson making the complaint and it being properly recorded and investigated.

He complained to the Independent Office for Police Conduct which upheld most of his complaints.

He was particularly annoyed that the bodycam footage had been deleted but the IOPC accepted the officer had done this as she had not arrested Mr Henderson and so felt there was no need to keep it.

The IOPC ruled that as the officer had used police powers to handcuff Mr Henderson then the footage should have been kept.

But the report states it “did not consider the failure to mark the footage as evidential was a deliberate attempt to cover up the incident” and that the officer “genuinely believed her actions were justified” so it was “unlikely she did not want the footage to be scrutinised.”

The report reveals there was a belief that Mr Henderson was acting irrationally and was drunk and that the officer handcuffed Mr Henderson when he resisted.

But as no offence was committed and he was not arrested the report states that it was not necessary to handcuff him and the officers had no power to detain him or use force to do so.

The officers gave him a lift home in their police van and although the IOPC report states that the officers believed they were acting in his best interests they had failed to justify their decision to take Mr Henderson home without his explicit consent.

As a result the officers face “management action” in the “form of advice and guidance from a supervisory officer.”

The report concludes that “both officers should be reminded that there is no power to detain a person who is not under arrest in order to make inquiries into whether any offences have been committed.”

A letter to Mr Henderson from West Yorkshire Police’s Professional Standards Department states regarding disorders such as Asperger Syndrome: “While there is no formal training provided to officers on a regular basis inputs are provided to officers in their foundation training and in and among other training inputs. However, this lack of training has been identified and a package is currently being prepared.”

Mr Henderson, who has complained previously about the police after he had sought police action about neighbours’ behaviour at a former address where he lived, said: “The police recently sent a letter of apology for any distress caused and they acknowledge the need to take lessons from this. I just hope they will then take the suggestion to advise generally so other officers change the way they do things so it won’t happen again. I still don’t know why they stopped me and handcuffed me behind their back.”

According to the National Autistic Society Asperger syndrome is a lifelong developmental disability that affects how people perceive the world and interact with others. They see, hear and feel the world differently to other people and may have difficulties with understanding and processing language.