World of the Bizarre

Man was once convicted of biting a policeman with someone else's teeth

By T.K. Randall
May 17, 2026

Image: AI-generated (Midjourney) Sinking your teeth into a member of law enforcement is certainly not a good idea if you value your freedom, yet for one Shropshire man, the law and the truth were not always aligned.

The incident in question took place in 1990 during a violent riot that had ensued as a result of the poll tax - an extremely unpopular taxation introduced at the time by Margaret Thatcher's government.

Alistair Mitchell had found himself trapped inside Whitehall during the riot and had observed multiple policemen arresting other protestors, often in an overly rough or dangerous way.

When he noticed officers grabbing a man around the throat, he called out, but quickly found himself being arrested after two policemen heard him shout and made straight for him.

"One of them said - book this one in for obstruction and assault on me," he recalled.Incredibly, he ended up being arrested and charged for "biting a police officer", something that had definitely not actually happened.

Even when his defence team was able to show that the bite mark did not match Mitchell's teeth, he was still found guilty and ultimately spent years in prison for something he hadn't done.

Eventually, though, he was able to have the conviction overturned and was released.

He was so impacted by his experience that he became a barrister and represented other victims of legal injustice for many years.

Sadly, he died at the age of just 61 in 2019.

His gravestone reads "The only man in British history to be convicted of biting a policeman with someone else's teeth".

Source: BBC News

Tags: Police