INQUIRY OVER PENSIONER’S BEATING
A GROUP of police officers will be investigated after being caught on camera pinning down, beating and dousing a Melbourne disability pensioner with capsicum spray and a garden hose.
Victoria’s anti-corruption commission will now investigate the incident outside the pensioner’s Preston home in September which was caught on CCTV.
Assistant Commissioner Luke Cornelius said he was “very concerned” by the security footage obtained by the media.
“The members involved clearly needed to be called to account for their conduct,” he told reporters yesterday.
But Mr Cornelius added it was not police practice to stand down officers when a complaint was made. Any such decision would follow the outcome of any Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission’s investigation.
Robinson Gill Lawyers accused six officers of mistreating their client, named only as John, after arriving at his Preston home to conduct a welfare check.
John’s CCTV system showed him trying to fend off the officers before being capsicum sprayed and dragged onto his lawn, where he was sprayed again.
“F***ing idiot, do you like that? Do you like that? Smells good, doesn’t it?” an officer is heard saying.
The footage also showed an officer hitting John’s leg with a baton. During the ordeal, John is wailing “Oh my back, my back”.
Lawyer Jeremy King said the footage was “very confronting and very distressing”.