Judge awards $54,000 in damages to protestor who sued police for capsicum spray use

ABC NEWS (Australia)

A Supreme Court judge has awarded $54,000 in damages to a protester who sued police over their use of capsicum spray, saying it constituted cruel and degrading treatment. Police used the spray to disperse protesters outside a mining conference at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre in 2019 and argued it was used in self defence. But a judge has now disagreed, finding it was a breach of the Human Rights Act.

Transcript

00:00When protesters scaled polls to hang a banner, police moved to arrest them, but were blocked

00:09by other demonstrators.

00:10Police then used capsicum spray to break the line, in a way lawyers for the Police Accountability

00:16Project argued was unlawful and excessive.

00:19They launched a class action, with lead plaintiff Jordan Brown, who was sprayed twice.

00:24He was standing huddled, not moving the first time he was sprayed and the second time he

00:29was running away from the protest.

00:33Police argued officers used the OC spray in self-defence, but today a Supreme Court judge

00:39found it was battery, causing Mr Brown physical injury and contributing to psychological injury.

00:46Justice Clare Harris said it constituted cruel and degrading treatment, and limited Mr Brown's

00:52rights to freedom of movement and right to peaceful assembly.

00:56He also found the spray's use was a breach of the Human Rights Act and awarded him $54,000

01:02in damages.

01:03I think it is a judgement that will show there are boundaries on their power to use OC spray,

01:08and in this circumstance that boundary has been crossed and it became unlawful.

01:13But the judge also made it clear that this judgement would not set a broad precedent for police use

01:18of capsicum spray.

01:20This decision and these damages are specific to the circumstances of this case.

01:26In a statement Victoria Police said the public should have confidence its members are highly

01:30trained and there are strict rules surrounding the use of OC spray.

01:34OC spray is not a harmless weapon, it's a chemical weapon that causes severe burning, it also causes

01:42acute trauma and it should not be used in the manner that it was used.

01:47The claims of more than 50 other plaintiffs in the class action are yet to be resolved.

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