the ACT Supreme Court as part of his sentencing hearing this week<\/a>, lawyers agreed it was after his arrest that he suffered extra-curial punishment at the hands of two tactical response members (TRM) with the Australian Federal Police (AFP).<\/p>\nHazell\u2019s lawyer, Sam Lynch of the Aboriginal Legal Service, said his client did not resist after he was arrested, then he was handcuffed and told to sit down with his hands behind his back.<\/p>\n
\u201cPolice are in control of his arrest, and he gives no physical or verbal indication of an intention to flee, be uncooperative or threatening,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The two TRM officers arrived after his arrest in time to hear him say something like, \u201cI\u2019m done, I\u2019m done\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, you\u2019re f-ing not,\u201d one of these officers replied.<\/p>\n
Mr Lynch said this officer then put his hands around Hazell\u2019s neck and drove him to the ground.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is screamed at to stop resisting. He is not. He is told multiple times to shut the f-k up,\u201d the lawyer said.<\/p>\n
He said this was captured on the body-worn cameras of the two ACT police officers who arrested his client, one of whom was recorded saying, \u201cGuys, guys, bodycam is on\u201d, before walking away while his client could be heard screaming in the background.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe arrest was intense but had been completed by [the ACT police officers] and was controlled by the time the TRM arrived. Their involvement was unnecessary,\u201d Mr Lynch said.<\/p>\n
![\"Tayler](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/untitled3-e1771555860270.png\")
<\/p>\n
The top two photos show Tayler Christian Hazell after he was arrested and before the AFP\u2019s tactical response members arrived, while the bottom two photos show him after they arrived at the scene and he had been taken to hospital. Photos: Tendered to the court.<\/p>\n
The defence lawyer said his client\u2019s actions were extremely dangerous and he must be lawfully punished for that by the court.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe force used on him, however, following his arrest was excessive and without cause,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe clearly suffered physical injury after he had been arrested, injuries which were not present before the involvement of the TRM.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the written submissions, Crown prosecutor Tamzin Lee accepted Hazell was \u201cthe victim of unlawful use of force by members of the AFP Territory Response Group\u201d immediately after he was arrested by members of ACT\u2019s general duties police officers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis conduct cannot be protected or endorsed and has been referred to professional standards and is the subject of ongoing police investigation,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She accepted that extra-curial punishment should be considered as a mitigating factor in sentencing. But she also argued that due to the seriousness of the overall offending and Hazell\u2019s culpability, \u201cextrajudicial punishment should attract little weight\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
On Thursday (19 February), regarding allegations of extrajudicial punishment inflicted by police officers, an AFP spokesperson said the organisation\u2019s professional standards unit had launched an investigation.<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir inquiries determined conduct was in breach of AFP\u2019s professional standards,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n
On Friday (20 February), Acting Justice John Burns said a redacted version of the footage of Hazell\u2019s arrest would be released to the media after it was filed with the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n
Both of the boys Hazell hit with the car suffered horrific injuries; one boy\u2019s injuries were life-threatening. The boys were taken to the hospital in critical condition and needed immediate surgery.<\/p>\n
The 32-year-old has remained in custody since his arrest.<\/p>\n
Make us preferred on Google<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Police examine the scene where the stolen Holden Commodore came to a stop while its driver, Tayler Christian…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":492032,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-492031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492031","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=492031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492031\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/492032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=492031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=492031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=492031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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