But she told the NSW District Court the threat was only a matter of speech and she was upset.<\/p>\n
During the case, the court was played body cam footage showing how police interacted with the woman and the use of a taser, but the immediate lead-up to the use of pepper spray was not recorded.<\/p>\n
Judge Alister Abadee said at the point of the spray being deployed, the woman was “in a practical sense \u2026 already under police control”, surrounded in a neighbour’s yard following a lengthy search for her.<\/p>\n
He said a supervising officer who used the spray “did not seriously turn his mind to the significance that he was dealing with an apparently mentally troubled person” or take any steps to de-escalate.<\/p>\n
Loading…<\/p>\n
Evaluated against an approach earmarked for mentally disturbed people in a police handbook, the supervisor’s approach “resorted to force prematurely”, Judge Abadee found.<\/p>\n
“His approach was confrontational,” the judge said in his decision.<\/p>\n
“Contrary to what was argued the spray was utilised against an apparently mentally disturbed person as a first resort; not a last resort.”<\/p>\n
Woman found in neighbouring yard<\/p>\n
The court found that the woman had made her claim of battery in relation to the pepper spray.<\/p>\n
When police initially attended, she did not open the door and told them she was okay, and to “f*** off” and “leave me alone”.<\/p>\n
Officers then began forcing entry at the front door while others scaled a balcony and went into a bedroom door, where the woman’s American staffy was tasered.<\/p>\n
About 10 officers searched for the woman for about 45 minutes, with the police helicopter and riot squad also involved.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Body-worn footage shows officers firing a taser at the woman’s dog. (ABC News: Dave Hunt)<\/p>\n
The woman, who had run out the back, was found in a neighbour’s yard where she was pepper sprayed before being restrained to an ambulance stretcher, taken to hospital and discharged that night.<\/p>\n
In defending the civil case, the State of NSW argued the officers had used no more than reasonable force and were authorised in their actions under the Mental Health Act.<\/p>\n
The State highlighted the concerns held by three officers in particular that the woman might attempt to kill or seriously injure herself and would benefit from being assessed at a mental health facility.<\/p>\n
‘Misfortune has bedevilled (her) life’<\/p>\n
Judge Abadee noted the woman had a “jaundiced view of police officers” due to previous interactions involving her partner and son, both of whom had issues with ice.<\/p>\n
“One cannot help but be moved by the misfortune that has bedevilled (her) life,” he said in the decision.<\/p>\n
The judge said the plaintiff presented nervously and emotionally during her evidence, and he considered she had formed a persecution complex or paranoia about the police.<\/p>\n
He did not go so far as to conclude she was a dishonest witness, but said he had “significant reservations” concerning her reliability.<\/p>\n
Judge Abadee accepted that when forcing entry into the home, three officers had a “subjective belief” about the woman appearing mentally disturbed.<\/p>\n
The plaintiff’s claims for trespass failed, as did the claim for false imprisonment because the court concluded the handcuffing was authorised by the Mental Health Act.<\/p>\n
The judge said the woman’s conduct after being pepper sprayed was “the antithesis of cooperation”.<\/p>\n
She was also awarded legal costs in her favour as part of the judgment.<\/p>\n
NSW Police declined to comment on the court’s decision.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Sydney woman who was pepper sprayed during a welfare check has been awarded $24,000 after a judge…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":309088,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[175577,64,63,13727,3104,44,4277,1158,121720,16391],"class_list":["post-309087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-american-staffy","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-battery","tag-dog","tag-news","tag-nsw-police","tag-police","tag-taser","tag-western-sydney"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=309087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309087\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/309088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=309087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=309087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=309087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}