My brother, 12, was slapped in the face by Sainsbury’s security guard for ‘theft’.

A STUDENT who was slapped in the face by a supermarket security guard who accused him of theft is too ‘traumatized’ to leave his home.

Shocking footage posted online shows the 12-year-old flying backwards after guards attacked him in front of horrified shoppers.

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The guard is heard saying, “I hit him?” before trying to avoid the camera.

He added: “It’s all on camera so he hit me first. He steals.

“If he pushed me first, he pushed me first.”

But the boy’s sister says he is now too scared to leave the house and branded the behavior of security forces “disgusting”.

She claims her brother went to the Sainsbury’s store in Elephant and Castle, south-east London, after school to buy a snack.

The family denies that the student who was attacked did anything wrong, claiming he had his bag checked and took nothing with him.

But security firm Mitie, which supplies staff to the supermarket chain, claims one of the boys was caught on CCTV trying to steal from the store.

Speaking to the Sun, she said: “He asked one of the security guards if he could leave his bike in the shop entrance because he didn’t have a chain.

“The black security guard allowed them to do that and then they went to the store to get their snacks.

“As they went to the back of the store the other security guard followed them and when they were about to leave and pay he told them he had to search them because he thought they were stealing.

“They didn’t find anything on them or in their pockets because they didn’t take anything. But the security guard continued to accuse her of stealing from the store.

“My brother stood quietly to the side at that point, and the guard yelled at his friend.

“He saw the security guard getting physical with his friend which was not caught on camera and he decided to leave the store because he was scared and didn’t want to be treated that way.

“He tried to leave but was followed by the security guard who told him to come back here and asked him to leave him alone because he hadn’t done anything.

“The guard then was in his face and very aggressive and my brother kept begging to let him go and that he had done nothing.

‘DUM’

“Then he hit him in the face, it was so brutal that he flew backwards. He’s absolutely traumatized by the whole thing.”

The family said they reported it to police, who confirmed that they had visited the store in connection with the incident.

She added: “He doesn’t want to leave home, he doesn’t go shopping and it’s just awful for us as a family.

“He’s feeling humiliated and it’s gone viral, which is so hard for us to watch.

“We are so grateful to the woman who filmed it for helping to confirm that there was a false allegation of theft.

“We spoke to the manager of the store yesterday who apologized and confirmed the security guard had been removed but we decided to escalate it.

“They also confirmed that nothing had been stolen from my brother or his friend and tried to claim that it was the security staff’s first day of work, which does not appear to be true.

“He was very apologetic but there’s not really much he can do and said we could escalate it.

Something like this shouldn’t happen, he’s 12 years old and has never experienced anything like this. It’s disgusting

“Something like this shouldn’t happen, he’s 12 years old and he’s never experienced anything like this. It’s disgusting.

“It completely shook my brother’s confidence and he just doesn’t want to go out anymore.”

A spokeswoman for Mitie said: “The video circulating on social media does not capture the full incident.

“Previous CCTV footage showed two youths entering the store, one of them putting goods in his bag and they try to leave without paying.

“Security officers asked the youths to return the items and an altercation ensued, during which our officer was physically assaulted and verbally threatened.

“The police were there and we are conducting an internal investigation.

“With retail crime and violence at unprecedented levels, our colleagues work in extremely challenging environments and are often at risk.”

A Sainsbury’s spokeswoman said: “We are urgently investigating this incident.”

A Metropolitan Police spokesman added: “On Wednesday May 25, police were called to a shop on New Kent Road where they spoke to a group of people who reported that a member of security staff had entered the previous day attacked the child.”