A police suspect told an Old Bailey jury he was brutally beaten by a truncheon-wielding cop.

Micheal O’Farrell, 32, fled a fight in Upper Street’s Shakespeare pub, but was hauled into a police van parked in Islington Green.

O’Farrell claimed he was victim of a “vicious” assault, with a broken nose, broken teeth and cuts and bruises to his face and arms.

Prosecutor Geoffrey Carey said the policeman told an outraged female passer-by: “Shut up, you slag, I’ll get you next.”

The Pc, based at Holloway police station, denied wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

Meanwhile, Islington councillors waged war on greedy property developers.

Labour and Social Democratic Party members put aside their differences to unite and change planning policies to clamp down on cut-price house conversions.

Houses were being turned into flats, driving regular families out of the borough.