For almost a minute, 22-year-old Ballina man Corey Barker was held down and allegedly assaulted by four police officers.
CCTV footage shows Mr Barker being thrown to the ground and allegedly being attacked by then Senior Constable David Ryan Hill, Probationary Constable Lee David Walmsley and Constables Ryan Charles Eckersley and Luke Christopher Mewing at Ballina police station on January 14, 2011.
The vision, played at the District Court in Sydney, then shows Mr Barker being dragged along the floor out of the room.
The four officers – and Senior Constable Mark Woolven 45, and Sergeant Robert Campbell McCubben, 49, who were on duty that night – all later claimed in similar statements that the prisoner had thrown at least one punch first.
But the blow wasn’t captured on the CCTV footage played to the jury on Tuesday.
The court also heard that Hill’s statement about the incident, sworn on January 19, 2011, was emailed to some of the other officers to help them prepare their own statements for the court case against Mr Barker.
Each officer’s statement, read to the court, said Mr Barker had been yelling abuse and threats, and punching and kicking the walls of the perspex dock where he was initially held.
The statements were backed by CCTV footage showing Mr Barker beating and kicking out at the walls of the holding dock.
Hill’s statement said Mr Barker pulled free while being taken by police to the cells and “punched me with a closed right fist to the nose” in a blow that left no physical injury.
The other officers gave similar accounts of what happened.
Mewing, 30, said Mr Barker struck Hill “in the nose with a right closed fist” and Woolven stated that he saw a punch thrown by Mr Barker “connect with the face of Senior Constable Hill”.
Emails from Senior Constable Greg Ryan, who had been involved in arresting Mr Barker, to some of the officers requesting their statements about the incident were tendered in court.
In them, Sen Const Ryan told the officers he’d attached his and Hill’s statements “for your reference”.
‘The matter is going to hearing on the 7th of July and you’ll all be required at this stage,’ he wrote in an April 2011 email to Eckersley, Walmsley, Mewing, Woolven and Hill among others.
‘He (Mr Barker) is fighting all charges, as if found guilty he will breach a suspended sentence … and therefore will be on a bus to Grafton jail.’
Hill, 36, Eckersley, 36, Walmsley, 26, and Mewing are charged with assaulting Mr Barker, lying in court, and trying to pervert the course of justice.
Woolven and McCubben are charged with trying to pervert the course of justice.
Defence lawyers say the CCTV footage only captured a third of the incidents at the Ballina station because the cameras were operating on delayed capture mode. The trial continues.
This reminds me of an incident at Maclean Local Court about fifteen years ago. I was a parole officer then. So “Freddie” like Mr Barker was before the court on a charge of assault police and would ‘be on a bus to Grafton Gaol’ if found guilty because he was on parole. But he was being bundled into the paddy wagon when the incident occurred rather than the police cells.
The police evidence was almost word for word: ‘He punched me with a closed right fist to the nose’ and ‘he struck Senior Constable X in the nose with a closed right fist’ as well as ‘I saw a punch thrown by “Mr Freddie” connect with the face of Senior Constable ‘X’
When ‘Freddie’ got into the box he was asked to give his account of the incident. He denied the charge of course and said”If I wanted to king hit the ***** I would have hit him with my left fist” and held up his right to show that his fingers were kind of permanently twisted into a shape the precluded making a fist. The magistrate immediately dismissed the charge.
Does it really have any relevance what occurred before or after ?
What the police video shows ,in all it’s gory detail , is a bunch of thugs assaulting a prisoner,who was unable to defend himself. This isn’t about the actions of the prisoner, it is about those who have sworn to uphold the law,not to lie to the court and not behave as violent criminals.
I suppose this is what comes about in a society that looks to football hooligans as ‘role models’, has it’s carefully raised olympians on more drugs than the favourite in the Melbourne Cup and with politicians more terrified of the “greyhound industry” than voters.
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I will not comment on the CCTV footage and what the police were alleged to do – that is why we have courts so let’s let them do their job. I did want question your depiction of our current society which is, may I suggest, quite inaccurate. In my observation football hooligans are generally dealt with fairly and firmly, and that is because it does not benefit the sponsors of sport to be being associated with poor role models. I cannot recall any but I suppose there are cases of Olympians who have used drugs but surely they are the exception. Those I have known personally like Judy Young the swimmer and Lyndy Ho the cyclists certainly did not. Indeed Australia’s renown in opposing drugs in sport has led to John Fahey the former premier of New South Wales as head of the World Anti Doping Agency. And as was shown in Orange it is the voters who terrify politicians, the voters who think closing the “greyhound industry” was an exaggerated reaction. I cannot fathom why some people have such a negative view our society – Australia is not perfect but the majority of us are not violent, drug-addicted thugs, who are happy to torture canines.
These cases involving all the police and ex police in question, have taken far to long to get to where they are now, and this is typical of NSW when police are involved. They drag it on, hoping the public will forget by the time it actually goes ahead. Well, that was a major fail, because it is reported just as much now as it was back when it was first heard.
I am not anti police, I have police in my family, and have quite a few police friends. But when police members blatantly lie in Court, and to the Integrity Commission, then use “inexperience” as an excuse, it only makes it hard for all honest, hardworking police, who are doing the right thing in their careers, and are acting professionally at all times.
We can even leave any video aside, these clowns lied in the Local Court, and also later at an Integrity Commission Inquiry. What appears on the video only a small part of the issue, The behavior of these police later that is just as bad. Its all documented for the world to see. Nothing is top secret.
I do recall an incident in Bundaberg where a gentleman climbed onto. a building and claims he was star gazing .the police tazered the roof and had the k9 unit trying to get on the roof so he jumped off the roof and landed on a car it was at least a 3 metre drop as he rolled off the car and could not hold himself upright 5 officers pounced hitting kicking and the most chilling part was one policeman standing one foot either side if his head beating his skull with a mag torch. Now they found no drugs or alcohol in his system they were that forthcoming he just got scared and said he couldn’t see another way out.no charges to the officers gentleman got 18 hundred dollar fine 12 months good behaviour bond and a couple of moths in hospital.I agree they have a job to do and they do it well in most cases ,everyone makes mistakes some learn some don’t .but I do believe in punishment fitting the crime that poor bugger walks around in a daze most of the time now and it saddens me…