Natalie Gerrard, 25, was sleeping when she and her partner were awoken by a police raid (Picture: Media Wales)
A couple say they’ve been left with ’emotional scarring’ after police wrongly smashed into their home while they were fast asleep.
Natalie Gerrard was in bed with her partner when officers used a battering ram to break down their front door at around 10.30am on January 20 this year.
Police were carrying out a search for drugs but mistakenly targeted the wrong property in the Welsh town of Maesteg.
It was only when Natalie pointed out the search warrant had a different address that cops realised they hadn’t only got the wrong house, but were also on the wrong street entirely.
The 25-year-old said her partner was left ‘crying and hyperventilating’ and ‘on the verge of a panic attack’ as police raided their home.
They’ve lodged a formal complaint with South Wales Police but claim their concerns have been ‘repeatedly dismissed with inadequate responses’ and the force has ‘not addressed our request for compensation appropriately’.
Describing what happened, Natalie, who works as a shop supervisor, said they were awoken by ‘banging outside’ and saw three officers trying to break down the front door.
Natalie said the incident has left them ’emotionally scarred’ (Picture: Media Wales)
‘The next thing I realised is that there are two policemen running upstairs,’ she said.
‘One checked the other bedroom and the bathroom, while the other one – who looked like he was in charge of the operation – stood there by the bedroom door and watched me and my partner dress.’
She claimed the ‘intimidating’ officer who watched them get changed ‘looked like he was ready to fight us’.
‘We are now talking about men watching two young women dress,’ Natalie said. ‘[There was] only one female officer present, who remained outside during the incident.’
Police boarded up the door with a board and wooden planks (Picture: Media Wales)
When they went downstairs, Natalie and her partner asked to see the warrant for themselves and told police: ‘You’ve got completely the wrong house, completely the wrong postcode.’
Natalie said: ‘Then they realised they’d obviously messed up.’
Seven months on from the incident, Natalie says they still have ‘some emotional scarring’ and get scared if someone knocks the door or if they hear sirens outside.
As well as compensation for emotional distress, the couple also want the police to reimburse them for nearly £400 in heating bills.
They claim a ‘terrible’ makeshift door police made using a board and planks of wood to cover the hole left them without adequate insulation until the landlord replaced it fully in July.
Their original door was destroyed by South Wales Police officers (Picture: Media Wales)
‘[The police] said the only thing they could give us was £105 – that is it, as a full price, from everything that we’d been through… I told them I wasn’t having that at all,’ said Natalie.
She added the incident had also led to ‘public embarrassment’ from neighbours and locals who made comments about the raid and their temporary door.
Natalie claims the apologies from South Wales Police have ‘not been sincere at all’ and she said she’s taking the issue up with the IOPC.
A spokesperson for South Wales Police said: ‘We can confirm that on 20th January 2024, a warrant was executed at an incorrect address by officers in the Maesteg area. An apology has been made to both occupants who were inside the property at the time.
‘On this occasion, the officers did not meet the high standards we expect from officers at South Wales Police and an error had been made in identifying the address upon the warrant.’
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