The NSW Police Force failed to comply with statutory protections for people being strip searched at music festivals because of a “clear and unassailable failure” to train and supervise officers, a court has been told.
Raya Meredith is the lead plaintiff in the class action lawsuit and is representing more than 3000 people subjected to potentially unlawful police strip-searches at music festivals in NSW between 2016 and 2022.
The lawsuit, which has been brought by Slater and Gordon and the Redfern Legal Centre against the state of NSW, alleges unlawful searches were conducted by NSW Police, including on children, at multiple popular music events.
Ms Meredith’s lawyer, Kylie Nomchong SC, told the Supreme Court in her closing statements on Tuesday it was incumbent on NSW Police to train officers in relation to statutory guidelines around the use of searches.
She said NSW parliament had recognised that it is “highly invasive and humiliating trespass to the person in that conduct (a strip search)”, and that as such there were statutory legal preconditions for such searches.
“What will become manifestly clear is that there was a clear and unassailable failure on the part of the NSW Police Force to exercise any reasonable care and skill to ensure that police officers deployed to music festivals, including that which the plaintiff attended in 2018, were properly trained, and that is particularly so where we say there was a known expectation that strip searches would take place.”
Ms Nomchong said police had failed to “exercise reasonable practise in relation to both training and delivery”, which in the statement of claim was a “direct causes of police officers failing to comply with statutory powers”.
She went on to tell the court there had been a “critical failure” on the part of the state of NSW to call witnesses in regard to training modules on strip searches conducted by officers, or officers who briefed police that day.
Ms Meredith was subjected to what her lawyers told the Supreme Court was a “degrading and humiliating” experience “akin to a sexual assault” when she was made to strip by police at a Byron Bay music festival in 2018.
The court was told Ms Meredith was made to undress in front of a police officer for inspection and was also required her to remove her tampon – NSW Police later admitted in court in April that the search was unlawful.
Ms Meredith had come to the attention of police after a drug dog sniffed in her direction, but then walked on.
Nonetheless, police allegedly told Ms Meredith to remove her top in a makeshift tarpaulin cubicle at the site.
She was further made to move her breast and to bend over, before being instructed to remove her shorts and underwear while a police officer inspected her vagina and anal area. No drugs were found during the search.
Ms Nomchong told the court the number of police searches in NSW was decreasing, while the number of strip searches were increasing.
In 2016, police received 16 complaints regarding strip searches, followed by 14 complaints in 2017 and two in 2018.
The NSW Police Force also faced nine civil cases in 2016, seven in 2017, and five in 2018.
“It shouldn’t be for the NSW Police Force to be concerned about complaints. It should be that the NSW Police Force should be concerned about the prevalence of conducting unlawful strip searches against the citizens of NSW,” she said.
“It doesn’t really matter if there’s five complaints or six complaints. There’s no magic number about that. What there is is there’s a prevalence of strip searches being undertaken without compliance with statutory powers”.
Ms Nomchong said she would submit that NSW Police were “well aware” of problems surround strip searches prior to 2018, following an investigation by the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission into complaints.
The LACC described a “breakdown in knowledge transfer process”.
More to come.
The NSW Police Force failed to comply with statutory protections for people being strip searched at music festivals because of a “clear and unassailable failure” to train and supervise officers, a court has been told.
Raya Meredith is the lead plaintiff in the class action lawsuit and is representing more than 3000 people subjected to potentially unlawful police strip-searches at music festivals in NSW between 2016 and 2022.
The lawsuit, which has been brought by Slater and Gordon and the Redfern Legal Centre against the state of NSW, alleges unlawful searches were conducted by NSW Police, including on children, at multiple popular music events.
Ms Meredith’s lawyer, Kylie Nomchong SC, told the Supreme Court in her closing statements on Tuesday it was incumbent on NSW Police to train officers in relation to statutory guidelines around the use of searches.
She said NSW parliament had recognised that it is “highly invasive and humiliating trespass to the person in that conduct (a strip search)”, and that as such there were statutory legal preconditions for such searches.
“What will become manifestly clear is that there was a clear and unassailable failure on the part of the NSW Police Force to exercise any reasonable care and skill to ensure that police officers deployed to music festivals, including that which the plaintiff attended in 2018, were properly trained, and that is particularly so where we say there was a known expectation that strip searches would take place.”
Ms Nomchong said police had failed to “exercise reasonable practise in relation to both training and delivery”, which in the statement of claim was a “direct causes of police officers failing to comply with statutory powers”.
She went on to tell the court there had been a “critical failure” on the part of the state of NSW to call witnesses in regard to training modules on strip searches conducted by officers, or officers who briefed police that day.
Ms Meredith was subjected to what her lawyers told the Supreme Court was a “degrading and humiliating” experience “akin to a sexual assault” when she was made to strip by police at a Byron Bay music festival in 2018.
The court was told Ms Meredith was made to undress in front of a police officer for inspection and was also required her to remove her tampon – NSW Police later admitted in court in April that the search was unlawful.
Ms Meredith had come to the attention of police after a drug dog sniffed in her direction, but then walked on.
Nonetheless, police allegedly told Ms Meredith to remove her top in a makeshift tarpaulin cubicle at the site.
She was further made to move her breast and to bend over, before being instructed to remove her shorts and underwear while a police officer inspected her vagina and anal area. No drugs were found during the search.
Ms Nomchong told the court the number of police searches in NSW was decreasing, while the number of strip searches were increasing.
In 2016, police received 16 complaints regarding strip searches, followed by 14 complaints in 2017 and two in 2018.
The NSW Police Force also faced nine civil cases in 2016, seven in 2017, and five in 2018.
“It shouldn’t be for the NSW Police Force to be concerned about complaints. It should be that the NSW Police Force should be concerned about the prevalence of conducting unlawful strip searches against the citizens of NSW,” she said.
“It doesn’t really matter if there’s five complaints or six complaints. There’s no magic number about that. What there is is there’s a prevalence of strip searches being undertaken without compliance with statutory powers”.
Ms Nomchong said she would submit that NSW Police were “well aware” of problems surround strip searches prior to 2018, following an investigation by the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission into complaints.
The LACC described a “breakdown in knowledge transfer process”.
More to come.
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