by Keyan Milanian

A mother has criticised police for taking DNA samples from her 15-year-old son after he slapped a sachet of tomato ketchup on a girl’s head.

Zach Cameron, from Medway Community College, was with a friend at a McDonald's restaurant in Chatham High Street (pictured left, last year) when according to his mum, Dawn, another girl started to make unpleasant comments.

He slapped a sachet of ketchup on the girl’s head. She told him she was going to tell the police.

His mother, Dawn, said: "The day he did it he came home and told me he had squashed ketchup into this girl’s hair and that she was going to call the police but I said ‘I doubt anything will come of it’ and then it did."

They were astonished when a few days later a letter from the police arrived asking them to go to Medway Police Station as a complaint had been lodged.

Mrs Cameron, 44, said husband James was furious when he and Zach arrived at the station expecting him to receive a ticking off only to have a swab sample taken from the inside of Zach’s mouth for police records.

She said: "It is not something you expect from something so trivial.

"I was driving up to London and a female driver nearly drove me off the road and nothing was done, my husband was also attacked in the pub.

"So you think all these other things are happening but something as silly as this gets followed up."

But Medway police said they were acting in line with their code of practice.

Sup Des Keers said: "Officers from Medway police station contacted the parents of the boy involved, who were already aware of the incident, and asked that they attended the police station with their son.

"On Monday 12 October the boy attended the police station with his father and admitted to the offence of common assault. He was issued with a reprimand and in line with the police code of practice his fingerprints and DNA were taken.

"No further action will now be taken in relation to the incident."