A pro-hunting demonstrator was punched at least twice by a police officer despite being already restrained by other officers, a court heard.

Pc Neil Latteman threw two, possibly three, ''unprovoked and unnecessary punches'' at Mark Faulkner, after he had been pulled from the crowd during the violent clashes between police and protestors in Parliament Square on September 15, last year.

In a case brought by the Independent Police Complaints Commission, Latteman, 43, an officer with the Metropolitan Police, allegedly lunged towards Mr Faulkner in an action described by one eyewitness as ''like a football hooligan''.

Mr Faulkner, 34, an arable and game farmer, from near Thirsk, North Yorkshire, had travelled to London for the protests with his nephew Philip and his employee Michael Abbot, Bow Street Magistrates Court heard.

Having been to the pub for two bottles of beer the trio joined the protests at around 3pm.

At approximately 3.30pm the crowds began to surge forward when they heard MPs were going to vote on the Hunting With Dogs Bill. Mr Faulkner, who was at the front of the protest by the police line, was hit twice by a police officer with a baton and recalls nothing until several minutes after the alleged assault by Latteman.

Riel Karmy-Jones, for the prosecution, said: ''It's not known who struck these blows, but they are relevant because Mr Faulkner was left stunned thereafter.

''One of the blows caused him to lose his senses and he fell to the ground. His nephew helped him to his feet and he began to regain consciousness.

''Shortly after Mr Faulkner was extracted from the crowd and police officers had him pushed against a van. His next recollection is being between two police vans in handcuffs.''

But footage filmed for private investigators and later studied by the IPCC allegedly shows Mr Faulkner being struck by Latteman after he had been pulled from the crowd.

Mr Faulkner suffered a lump to the front of his head, a black left eye, a stiff lip and bruising to his elbow, the court heard.

It is not known which incident caused these injuries but he needed treatment at the scene of the protest and briefly at St Thomas's Hospital, in south London.

The Chief Magistrate of England and Wales, Timothy Workman, was shown several extracts from a video showing Mr Faulkner in the crowd during the protests.

Michael Shaw, for the defence, put to Mr Faulkner during cross examination, that he encouraged crowds to surge forward during the protests.

''You wanted to storm through the police line to get to the Houses of Parliament,'' he said.

Mr Faulkner replied: ''No, we were trying to make our voices heard.''

Mr Shaw also suggested the footage showing Mr Faulkner at the time of the incident suggested he was being aggressive to the police officers trying to hold him.

But Mr Faulkner said he had no recollection of this incident and suspected he would have been too dazed to be aggressive.