Law Enforcement Conduct Commission head, Michael Adam QC, told a public hearing into claims three teenage boys were unlawfully searched at an under-18s event that strip searches conduct without legal justification “may well be indecent assault”.
“When one is dealing with a subject such as strip searching of young people, the inevitable sexual content of such events cannot be overlooked,” he said.
The inquiry heard all three boys, aged between 15 and 17, at the Lost City festival at Sydney Olympic Park in February, were told to touch their genitalia while being searched, with one boy claiming an officer told him to “hold your dick, lift your balls up and show me your gooch”.
Released in June, the NSW Police Personal Search Manual has drawn criticism from legal circles for saying officers can ask a person to lift his testicles, or part his or her buttock cheeks, as well as squat.
The LECC chief commissioner said the probe was contacting experts studying sexual encounters between adults and children “to identify the risks involved when such searches are conducted and how those risks might best be ameliorated” so rules of best-practice could be developed.
The Herald previously revealed a woman, 20, said a strip search at a 2018 music festival forced her to relive a sexual assault that occurred just over a year earlier.
A UNSW report, commissioned by the Redfern Legal Centre, calling for legal reform around strip searches, said the “invasive” practice could re-traumatise victims of sexual assault.
“We understand the importance of this review and will take a considered approach when the findings are delivered. As an organisation with extraordinary powers, we understand the need to closely monitor and regularly review the use of search powers,” a NSW Police spokesperson said.
Mr Adams also urged parents and guardian of children who had been strip searched “with apparently unhappy consequences” to come forward, saying their testimonies would help particular issues to be scrutinised.
Read the full article here (Sydney Morning Herald, 4 December 2019)
