A lawyer involved in a case that prompted a state government-ordered review of excessive force complaints against Gold Coast police says more video footage of alleged brutality cases is set to emerge.
Jason Grant said he had obtained CCTV footage of two further incidents involving clients who would allege they were victims of unjustified assaults when arrested by police in Surfers Paradise.
It comes as the new crime and corruption commission chairman Alan MacSporran announced the “use of force by police officers and the police discipline system” would be the focus of his leadership of the watchdog.
MacSporran said on Thursday that the CCC was “independently assessing” two alleged police brutality cases.
“The (CCC) is aware of recent media reporting and public concern about a number of incidents involving police and the use of force,” he said. “The use of force by police officers and the police discipline system are of particular interest to me and will be a focus of my chairmanship at the CCC.”
MacSporran said the CCC was “also exploring a range of options for stronger oversight of allegations of excessive use of force”.
It proposed briefing the parliamentary crime and corruption committee on these options next month, he said.
This follows an internal police review of whether to charge an officer shown in footage striking the face another of Grant’s clients, Brayden Mechen, which was launched after the video was made public on Tuesday.It follows an internal police review of whether to charge an officer shown in footage striking the face another of Grant’s clients, Brayden Mechen, which was launched after the video was made public on Tuesday.
Grant said police prosecutors had become aware of the footage nine months ago when he obtained it, but the officer faced no scrutiny over the matter before quitting several months later.
Mechen’s is the latest in a string of alleged brutality cases that have fuelled criticism of Queensland police’s processes of internal investigation and discipline, prompting action this week by the state government.
It is also a sign of how the advent of CCTV in public places and police stations has changed the dynamic in alleged brutality cases, where defendants previously relied on their word against police.
The state’s police minister, Jo Ann Miller, revealed on Wednesday that a senior officer would lead an investigation of police brutality claims on the Gold Coast, independent of a review of that region’s police culture already underway.
Former head internal investigator Brian Codd will assume oversight as assistant commissioner on the Gold Coast, where the government will make the rollout of body worn video cameras for police a priority.
Grant said video footage that he had obtained in relation to two other cases currently before the courts would portray similar scenarios to Mechen’s.
“They’re all from Surfers Paradise,” he said. “Once again they involve embellishments about what happened to try and justify the [police] reaction.”
Gold Coast city council CCTV footage shows Mechen in handcuffs and held by each arm by two officers outside a police van when one of them punches him in the face.
The officer and two colleagues claimed Mechen spat in his face, which the tradesman “emphatically” denies, Grant said.
Mechen, whose friend was involved in an altercation outside a nightclub that police responded to, had been earlier forced to the ground and arrested after tapping an officer on the shoulder.
Grant had intended to submit the video as evidence in the Southport magistrates court but police prosecutors withdrew charges against Mechen on Tuesday.
“I had conversations with prosecutors about how damning the video was to their case pretty much from the time I got it,” Grant said.
“It went to about four different prosecutors. It seemed apparent that someone was pushing the issue to try and keep the case going rather than withdraw the charges. Obviously we submitted when after three months we got [the video], the charges should have been withdrawn. They decided to elongate it for 12 months.”
Asked whether senior police had long known about the video, Grant said: “I couldn’t comment on how the back of house works but one would think that at least the officer in charge of prosecutions must have seen it.”
Police on Tuesday told the Courier-Mail that the officer who arrested Mechen had not been investigated as there had been no complaint against him.
On Wednesday, the newspaper reported the officer had quit amid separate disciplinary matters. Gold Coast superintendent Michelle Stenner said it was “a good thing for the service that they took proactive steps in terms of that officer”.
Grant told Guardian Australia: “One has to question why we have to formally lay a complaint when it’s presumed that we’re disagreeing with the police officer’s version of events”.
He said the officer’s account was inconsistent with the video, which “shows he’s not even looking at the defendant yet his statement is that he was spat [at] on the face”.
“And then he has two other colleagues who are willing to substantiate his version of events, which is even more concerning.”
Grant agreed the advent of CCTV cameras was a significant development in alleged police brutality cases.
In the past, “you’d just go and hope to God that the magistrate or the judge preferred your version over the multiple versions against you”, he said. “But undoubtedly it would have been stacked against you.”
CCTV footage of separate alleged assaults by Gold Coast police on 50-year-old justice department employee Ray Currier and another man, Michael Cox, who is suing police for more than $100,000, has also been made public in recent weeks.
The Queensland Council for Civil Liberties has asked the crime and corruption commission to investigate police handling of a brutality complaint against Surfers Paradise police in 2013 by chef Noa Begic.
That case resulted in a confidential payout by police to Begic and no criminal charges against his alleged assailants, but an ongoing prosecution against an officer who allegedly leaked footage of the incident to media.
