Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Man bashed by Qld police to sue
A MAN allegedly bashed by police under the Surfers Paradise police station has launched legal action against the state of Queensland.
Noa Begic was arrested after a night out in Surfers Paradise in January last year and taken to the basement of the local police station, where CCTV footage appeared to show him being punched and thrown to the ground by officers.
The Courier-Mail posted exclusive footage of the incident on its website and all charges against Mr Begic were later dropped.
However, he has now taken legal action, engaging high-profile law firm Maurice Blackburn to sue the state of Queensland in a civil suit. He is believed to be seeking a six-figure settlement.
A close friend of Mr Begic said it was taking a long time for the mental scars to heal after the ordeal. "He was very anxious about police for a long while as you can imagine," said the friend. "He is trying to get on with his life and sees this as a chance to close the door on that chapter."
Two of the four officers allegedly involved in the incident remain suspended from duty while the Queensland Police Service's Ethical Standards Command runs its own investigation.
Mr Begic had been drinking with friends after finishing his shift at a Surfers Paradise restaurant when he was approached by police officers. He was arrested and taken to the basement of the nearby police station.
CCTV then appears to show a handcuffed Mr Begic being flung to the ground before being punched several times in the head by one of the officers as he is pushed into the back of a police wagon.
One of the officers is then shown pouring a bucket of water over what looks to be a puddle of blood on the basement floor.
Mr Begic was charged with being a public nuisance and obstructing police after he allegedly directed numerous loud and abusive comments towards officers patrolling the Surfers nightclub strip.
The charges against Mr Begic were thrown out last June. Mr Begic has also asked the Queensland Police Service to pay his legal costs from that court action.
The ethical standards investigation into the affair continues, while an investigation is also under way into an officer accused of leaking the CCTV footage to the newspaper.
http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/friend-says-noa-begic-has-mental-scars-after-bashing-in-surfers-paradise-police-station-basement/story-e6freoof-1226647224141
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4 comments:
If QPS is honest and open, why is the investigation into the officer who released the video 'on going'? Why isn't this officer given an award? The comments of past Commissioner Atkinson said it all to me when he was more concerned about 'who released the video' than he was about the chef who was bashed, not word of mouth or hear say, but the CCTV proof. Nothing was even done about this for approx. 10 days until the video went public. Then it was not, 'how bad this is' it was 'who released the video' and then the past Commissioner even made the statement that it is sometimes OK to punch a person in the head. Does the same person now on the Royal Commission into abuse, consider it is OK to abuse a person sometimes?? Double standards of QPS
The officer who released the video of the bashing of the chef in the basement of the Southport police station has been charged with misconduct, demoted and transferred. QPS is still deciding if or what charges for the officers seen on CCTV assaulting the chef! They sure have a funny way of encouraging officers to dob in a mate.
I'd like to ask Commissioner Atkinson where he draws his line on abuse? Is it not OK to sexually abuse a person, but OK to abuse a person mentally? To be working one minute, not see an incident, as stated by all who were there "that the officer could not have seen", but the internal investigators know all, and with no investigation of the facts and evidence provided, decided that he did see and did ignore. Commissioner Atkinson is quiet at peace that this officer can spend 3 years of his life trying in vain to establish the truth, when in fact 'the assistant commissioner within hours of the incident being known', has made a decision that no one is game to overturn? How many years of stress and turmoil would the top cop expect the officer to cop? You failed in your duty of care Commissioner Atkinson and in my opinion I do not consider you should be on the Royal Commission into sexual abuse. Abuse is abuse.
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