A man has been paid £17,000 in compensation after a police officer was caught on camera hitting him repeatedly with a baton.

Omar Mushtaq, 27, from north London, had been to a birthday party at the O2 Arena in 2013 when police intervened as he tried to get a drunk friend to "calm down".

He said: "This was a brutal end to a friend's party. I admit we got a bit loud trying to calm down a drunk friend, but the police were heavy-handed and aggressive. I was assaulted, arrested and imprisoned. This settlement reflects just how violent the police were, as can be seen on the video footage."

A clip released by his solicitor shows Sergeant Matthew Bassett hitting Mr Mushtaq repeatedly with an extendable baton, before grabbing his phone from his hand while two colleagues restrained him.

Mr Bassett was cleared of actual bodily harm following a five-day trial in April 2015, and resigned before an internal misconduct hearing.

Terence Channer, of London-based law firm Scott-Moncrieff, said: "Mr Mushtaq and his friends were not being aggressive and not causing any disturbance to others - they were at a birthday party, trying to calm down a drunk friend. That's the long and short of it, but the police response was over the top.

"Initially, after he was arrested, Mr Mushtaq was charged with a criminal offence but that charge was swiftly dropped due to a lack of evidence."