Daniel Rusling
Introduction
Daniel Rusling was a police constable with Wiltshire Police who assaulted a 13-year-old boy inside a police station car park while the boy was asking officers for help getting home. Rusling, then 30, admitted assault by beating, received an eight-week prison sentence suspended for 12 months, and was later barred from policing after an accelerated misconduct hearing found he would have been dismissed. The case, investigated by the police watchdog, drew attention because the children involved had done nothing more than dial 999 and then stand in the way of a police car.
Background Information
Rusling served as a police constable with Wiltshire Police. On 14 October 2025, in the early hours, he was on duty at Monkton Park Police station in Chippenham when a group of six children arrived at the station. They had dialled 999 to ask for police help after reporting being threatened by the occupants of a vehicle.
One of the group was a 13-year-old boy who was wearing school uniform, had been reported missing from home, and asked for a lift home. According to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), the children had been compliant up until the boy, encouraged by the other boys, stood in front of Rusling’s police car to stop it being driven.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Criminal conviction for assault by beating, with a subsequent gross misconduct finding.
What happened next was captured in the IOPC’s account of the altercation. Rusling swore at the boy when he asked for the lift home, shoved him with both hands a total of six times, and pulled him by his jumper towards the car park exit, in response to the boy standing in front of his car. IOPC Director of Engagement Derrick Campbell said the officer at one stage appeared to be encouraging the boy to fight by saying “come on then, you wanna go”. The boy was uninjured.
Wiltshire Police made a mandatory conduct referral to the IOPC on 28 October 2025, and the watchdog began an independent investigation. On completion, a file of evidence was passed to the Crown Prosecution Service on 4 April 2026; the CPS authorised one charge of assault by beating, contrary to Section 39 of the Criminal Justice Act, on 8 April. Rusling admitted the offence at an earlier court appearance.
On 30 June 2026, at Bristol Magistrates’ Court, Rusling was sentenced to eight weeks’ imprisonment, suspended for 12 months, and ordered to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work.
Public Reaction and Consequences
The IOPC’s public characterisation of Rusling’s conduct was unusually blunt for a serving officer. Campbell said Rusling was initially justified in pushing the boy away from the vehicle, “but what happened afterwards was unacceptable and a wholly disproportionate response”, adding that his language, body language and attitude were aggressive and that there was no attempt to de-escalate. “The judge described it as persistent; it went on and on,” Campbell said. “It was not just a momentary loss of temper. These children had asked for help but one ended up being assaulted, repeatedly sworn at, and told to get out of the way.” He said the officer’s actions would damage trust and confidence in policing.
The IOPC concluded that Rusling also had a case to answer for gross misconduct. Because he resigned from Wiltshire Police, the force held an accelerated misconduct hearing on 20 July 2026. The panel concluded that former PC Rusling would have been dismissed without notice had he not already resigned, and he was placed on the Police Barred List, preventing him from working in any police force in England and Wales.
Current Status
Rusling is a former police officer. He is on the Police Barred List, his criminal conviction stands with a suspended sentence and 150 hours of unpaid work attached, and the misconduct findings were recorded at the July 2026 hearing. No appeal against either outcome appears in the public record.
Impact on Their Career/Life
Rusling’s policing career ended in the space of nine months: an assault in October 2025, a charge the following April, a criminal conviction and suspended prison term in June, and a barred-list entry in July. The IOPC’s finding that his initial use of force was justified but everything after it was disproportionate sharpened the significance of the case: the misconduct was not the decision to engage with a non-compliant teenager but the sustained, swearing, six-shove escalation against a 13-year-old who had called 999 for help.
The barred list entry is the professional equivalent of striking off — it closes every route back into policing — and the conviction itself is now a matter of permanent public record. For Wiltshire Police, the case became part of the national conversation about how officers respond to children, with the IOPC emphasising that the boy and his friends had been the ones seeking police protection that night.