A custody officer has been injured after a scuffle with a defendant in the holding area of Sutton Magistrates Court.

The Serco custody officer is believed to have broken his ankle during an altercation with Anthony Moriarty, from Stonebridge Lodge in Croydon, as they waited in the holding area below the court.

Mr Moriarty, 24, was arrested last night in Queens Road, Sutton, on suspicion of burglary and was due to appear in front of the magistrates today.

A colleague said: “The custody officer's ankle snapped in the mayhem and he’s going to be off work for months which he is really worried about.”

A spokesman for London Ambulance Service said: “We were called at just after 11am to an incident at Sutton Magistrates’ Court in Shottfield.

“We sent one ambulance crew to the scene. Our staff treated a 39-year-old man with an ankle injury who was taken as a priority to St George’s Hospital, Tooting.”

More to follow