A Victoria Police officer charged with unlawfully assaulting a disability pensioner during a welfare check is accused of a separate assault on a teenager less than four months later.
Florian Hilgart has faced the Melbourne Magistrates' Court charged with intentionally causing injury, recklessly causing injury and unlawful assault for allegedly hitting a 16-year-old boy with a baton in an incident filmed by a passer-by on their mobile phone.
Prosecutors alleged the 30-second video showed Senior Constable Hilgart and another police officer using their batons to hit the windows of a car on a street in Thornbury, in Melbourne's north, on New Year's Day in 2018.
A passenger got out of the vehicle and ran down the street before the boy exited the car and dropped to the ground, the court heard.
Senior Constable Hilgart is accused of hitting the boy with his baton while he was on the ground.
The incident was filmed from a distance by a woman in a car driving past the scene, the court heard.
Senior Constable Hilgart's barrister, Marcus Dempsey, told the court the video did not depict the entire situation and a number of other factors needed to be understood before a conclusion could be drawn about whether the police officer used reasonable force.
The accused officer will return to court in November for a committal hearing, allowing him time to go on a month-long overseas holiday with his family.
The complainant, who is now 17, the woman who filmed the incident and five other witnesses will give evidence.
In a separate case, Senior Constable Hilgart is one of three Victoria Police officers charged with unlawfully assaulting a disability pensioner during a welfare check at Preston, in Melbourne's north, in September 2017.
He is accused of using a high-pressure hose to spray water in the man's face and is set to fight the charge at a hearing at the Heidelberg Magistrates Court at a later date.
Victoria Police has confirmed Senior Constable Hilgart is currently suspended with pay.
