{"id":726661,"date":"2026-06-10T04:52:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T04:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/726661\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T04:52:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T04:52:09","slug":"nsw-admits-pro-palestine-protester-hannah-thomas-was-assaulted-by-police-officers-and-falsely-imprisoned-australian-police-and-policing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/726661\/","title":{"rendered":"NSW admits pro-Palestine protester Hannah Thomas was assaulted by police officers and falsely imprisoned | Australian police and policing"},"content":{"rendered":"

The state of New South Wales<\/a> has admitted that a police officer punched Hannah Thomas in the eye while holding a torch at a pro-Palestine protest \u2013 and it\u2019s offered to pay her medical costs.<\/p>\n

Court documents seen by Guardian Australia reveal that the state has admitted to false imprisonment and battery in its defence to a civil action launched by the former Greens candidate in October.<\/p>\n

NSW has denied claims of malicious prosecution and malfeasance in public office.<\/p>\n

Thomas was arrested and charged alongside four others at a pro-Palestine protest in Sydney in late June 2025<\/a> that was attended by about 60 people at SEC Plating.<\/p>\n

Three months later, the office of the director of public prosecutions (DPP) dropped all charges against Thomas and three other protesters.<\/p>\n

The now 36-year-old was taken to hospital after she was punched and underwent three rounds of surgery on her right eye. The statement of claim reveals she weighed 45kg and was 156cm tall at the time of the battery.<\/p>\n

In her claim, filed in the NSW supreme court in October, Thomas\u2019s lawyers wrote: \u201cSenior Constable [Christopher] Davis punched the plaintiff\u2019s right eye with his right hand \u2026 causing the plaintiff to scream, as well as causing immediate bleeding and swelling in and from the plaintiff\u2019s right eye.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the time of the punch, Senior Constable Davis was holding a torch in his right hand.\u201d<\/p>\n

The state has admitted this conduct of Davis \u201cas pleaded\u201d and that the use of force \u201cconstituted a battery\u201d. It also admitted in its statement of defence, filed with the court in April, to harm and general damages as a result of the punch.<\/p>\n

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Thomas\u2019s lawyers from O\u2019Brien Criminal and Civil Solicitors wrote that it ruptured her eyeball and fractured her eye socket.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe state has offered to pay the plaintiff\u2019s reasonable expenses connected with the injuries admitted by this pleading,\u201d NSW said in its defence.<\/p>\n

Thomas\u2019s lawyers claimed she was also entitled to aggravated and exemplary damages, alleging Davis\u2019s conduct was \u201cmanifestly excessive\u201d and constituted a \u201cgrave departure\u201d from police powers. However, the state denied those claims.<\/p>\n

Davis is scheduled to face a criminal hearing<\/a> in February after he pleaded not guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm and recklessly causing grievous bodily harm.<\/p>\n

The defence notes that the protest outside SEC Plating was planned by the group Weapons Out the West and was \u201capparently concerned with manufacturing companies, such as SEC Plating, providing components for weapons thought to be used by Israel in the conflict taking place in Gaza\u201d. SEC Plating has previously denied this.<\/p>\n

Other admissions<\/p>\n

The state admitted to another battery after Thomas claimed Sen Const Pir Ali Noohpoto grabbed her before the punch which led her to shout in pain. The state admitted that Noohpoto \u201ctook hold of the plaintiff\u2019s upper body\u201d.<\/p>\n

NSW admitted that use of force \u201cconstituted a battery\u201d, in its statement of defence.<\/p>\n

The state admitted the same officer took hold of Thomas\u2019s arms in an effort to remove her from a group of other protesters, who the state has claimed were pulling her back into their fold.<\/p>\n

The defence argued other officers used \u201creasonable force to suppress a breach of the peace\u201d and it was \u201clawful and carried out in self-defence\u201d.<\/p>\n

Thomas alleged in her statement of claim slight variations to the state\u2019s admissions.<\/p>\n

The state agreed that after she was punched and lay on the ground, officers discussed that she had been punched.<\/p>\n

It admitted Thomas was then not allowed to leave after she was directed to remain seated or standing for a period of time near the incident, and that her \u201ceye remained closed and appeared to be injured\u201d.<\/p>\n

Thomas claimed \u2013 alongside battery and false imprisonment \u2013 that the state engaged in malicious prosecution and malfeasance in public office.<\/p>\n

The state has denied those latter allegations. Thomas claimed an officer \u201cfalsified the narrative of events\u201d and charged Thomas for an \u201cimproper purpose\u201d.<\/p>\n

Thomas was initially charged with resisting police and refusing or failing to comply with a direction to disperse.<\/p>\n

It was later revealed that Thomas\u2019s arrest documents showed her second charge relied on a rarely used emergency power<\/a> introduced in the wake of the 2005 Cronulla riots.<\/p>\n

NSW police withdrew that charge in July and announced Thomas would instead face an additional charge of refusing or failing to comply with a direction alongside resisting police. The DPP withdrew all charges in September.<\/p>\n

Thomas was subsequently awarded $22,000 in legal costs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The assistant police commissioner Brett McFadden said after the June 2025 protest<\/a> that \u201cpreliminary examination of some of the body-worn video\u201d did not show \u201cany misconduct by any police officers\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no doubt that the injuries sustained during the course of her arrest, that\u2019s not in dispute, and we\u2019re now looking to understand the full circumstances as to how that took place,\u201d he said on 30 June 2025.<\/p>\n

NSW police said on Wednesday in a statement: \u201cAs the matter is currently litigated in the courts, it is inappropriate to respond at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The next hearing of the civil claim was scheduled for early September.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The state of New South Wales has admitted that a police officer punched Hannah Thomas in the eye…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":726662,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-726661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726661","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=726661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/726662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=726661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=726661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=726661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}