A police constable has kept her job after being found guilty by a disciplinary panel of gross misconduct for using excessive force when she repeatedly hit an ex-footballer with her baton after he was Tasered to the ground.

An independent tribunal on Friday found that Mary Ellen Bettley-Smith, a West Mercia police officer, acted wrongly when she struck Dalian Atkinson three times with her police-issue baton during an incident in the early hours of 15 August 2016.

The panel could have sacked Bettley-Smith, a University of Hull graduate originally from Staffordshire, without notice but instead handed her a final written warning.