Jenny Noyes reports for the Sydney Morning Herald
The NSW Law Enforcement Conduct Commission is investigating allegations excessive force was used by five officers during a “proactive policing” operation in northern NSW on the night of September 11, in which the boy alleges he was “slammed on his head”.
During a directions hearing on Wednesday, the commission heard the officers involved did not activate their body-worn video at the time of the incident. However, footage circulating on social media shows the boy bleeding heavily from the head and appearing dazed as he is treated by paramedics at the scene.
Samantha Lee, acting principal solicitor at the Redfern Legal Centre and lawyer for the boy, who has been given the pseudonym YPM1, said she had been instructed to seek a public hearing.
Lee noted her client was “outnumbered” by the legal representatives for the NSW Police Commissioner, the Police Association and the individual officers involved – all of whom argued for the hearing to be conducted in private – but she said he was “not outmotivated to seek a public hearing in relation to this incident”.
Read the full article here (14 December 2022).
