A derail, but Roy Hanney, an old flatmate of my oldest friend, was falsely arrested during the London poll tax riots for affray. He became the first person to be acquitted in the UK because the jury had asked the judge to stop the trial.
Chapter 4: Riots and Rebellion says:
A witness, who had been taken away in the same van as Mr. Hanney (the defendant) corroborated his testimony, saying that, in fact, it was he who had been beaten up — by the police!: "[PC Egan] hit him repeatedly. At some stages he changed to punching him with his right hand because the man was trying to cover his head. It went on for at least three minutes."
A medical report confirmed that he had bruising to his forehead, eyebrows and back, and a loss of sensation in his arm. The statements which the police produced in court were supposed to be independent accounts of what happened. PC Egan theoretically wrote his statement at Rochester Row, at 6.45 p.m., while PC Ramsay made his at City Road more than three hours later:
[The two statements were almost word-for-word the same.]
The police tried to suggest that any similarities were coincidental but, when the defence asked to see PC Ramsay's handwritten original it showed that 'shaven' had been crossed out and substituted with 'close cropped'. Most of the jurors responded with open laughter and in the middle of the trial they sent a note to the judge which said they had discussed the case briefly in the courtroom lift and were '...unanimously convinced of the defendant's innocence.' (The Observer, 11 /11 /90).
libcom.org/library/chapter-4-riot-rebellion
Roy successfully sued the London Met for false imprisonment, assault and battery, and malicious prosecution by two territorial support officers and received £30,000 in compensation: www.independent.co.uk/news/police-pay-163-30-000-for-poll-tax-riot-assault-1567769.html