The case of a former Byron Bay police officer found not guilty of assaulting a teenager five years ago in a CBD laneway is to be reheard in Lismore today.
Footage of the violent incident made national headlines in early 2018, leading to a Law Enforcement Conduct Commission investigation.
The viral video showed four officers deployed at the time at Byron Bay Police Station working to restrain a naked sixteen-year-old boy.
The state’s police watchdog later recommended the state consider charging one of the officers with common assault.
Michial Luke Greenhalgh was found to have hit the boy with his baton eighteen times of a total nineteen strikes delivered.
It was the final six blows that played a crucial role for Magistrate Michael Dakin in determining the former senior constable’s use of reasonable force.
Magistrate Dakin found the former senior constable not guilty after a prolonged trial in Lismore Local Court two years ago with pandemic restrictions still in place and public access curtailed.
But the NSW Supreme Court has since found an error of judgment in Magistrate Dakin’s verdict concerning the law around reasonable force and objectivity, leading to today’s rehearing.
It’s understood Magistrate Dakin, also a former police officer, has the option of recusing himself from the case and that the parties involved can also object.
Either scenario could lead to the case being trialled again.
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