Two former Sydney police officers, Nathan Black and Timothy John Trautsch, have pleaded guilty to assaulting a mentally ill woman during a welfare check in January 2023.
The woman, 49, was naked and in a psychotic state when the officers found her in the streets of Emu Plains in western Sydney, New South Wales.
The footage was so disturbing that in 2023, the police claimed it should be suppressed for 60 years to protect the woman from further trauma.
Highlights
- Two Sydney officers pleaded guilty to assaulting a naked, psychotic woman during a welfare check in January 2023 in Emu Plains.
- The woman, diagnosed with schizophrenia and off medication, was repeatedly pepper-sprayed, kicked, punched, and dragged by her hair.
- Officers laughed during the assault; one said, “We caved her,” and sprayed pepper spray into the woman's face and genitals.
- Despite the woman's death, police sought a 60-year suppression on footage which a barrister challenged for public viewing.
Two Sydney police officers pleaded guilty to assaulting a mentally ill woman in 2023
Image credits: news.com.au
However, after she died last year due to unrelated circumstances, barrister Matthew Lewis, representing The Sydney Morning Herald and other news outlets, petitioned the court to allow media to witness the footage on behalf of the public.
He argued the public needed to understand the depth of the police misconduct.
Video footage was played at a sentencing hearing at Penrith District Court on Thursday.
The police left the suppression order in effect despite the woman’s death.
The woman, 48, had recently been released from nearby Amber Laurel women’s prison and had a schizophrenia diagnosis but was not taking medication.
Image credits: NSW Department of Communities and Justice
Witnesses saw her bathing in a puddle and acting erratically.
Black and Trautsch, then 26 and 28, were conducting a welfare check and first tried to get her into an ambulance.
The court heard the woman was in a “state of psychosis.”
The Sydney Morning Herald reported on the video footage that showed the woman sitting on a nature strip, naked. She was swearing at the police and refusing to tell them her name.
In the footage, she can be heard telling the officers she will “put them both down” and saying that “aliens were watching."
One officer told the woman she would be committed to Nepean Hospital on a psychiatric hold.
“I’m terrified of you people,” the woman shouted. “You ain’t got the drugs to fix me, you ain’t got the drugs to put me out. You can’t beat me … that gun is not going to help you.”
She then tried to run away from the officers through the streets of Emu Plains. As she tried to flee, the officers tackled her to the ground.
Violence then escalated during an 18-minute assault against the woman, the court heard.
The woman, suffering from schizophrenia, was kicked, dragged by her hair, and sprayed with pepper spray
Image credits: Google Maps
She was pushed onto the road, kicked twice in the head, dragged along by her hair, and punched.
At one point, the two officers struggled trying to handcuff her on the ground as she lashed out with her arms.
The footage then showed her sitting cross-legged, praying for God’s protection. Then, one of the officers fired pepper spray into her face and vagina.
“God, make me strong. God, make me strong,” she said over and over. “God, please. I’m sorry I didn’t listen. I’m sorry, God.”
The woman, covered in her own excrement and spray, washed herself in the gutter. She was sprayed six times with pepper spray in total.
Bodycam footage from Black’s camera was periodically turned on and off. In one of the clips, the officers can be heard laughing.
At another point, the woman defecates on the street and Black tells her to wash her “dirty, stinky a**” while giving her baby wipes.
“Wash your c***, wash your a**e, wash it out,” Black says in the video.
Despite the woman being unarmed and clearly distressed, Black asked Trautsch if they had a Taser or a “long bat.” One officer replied: “Yeah, that will settle her down.”
One video clip shows them spraying her visibly scraped back with more pepper spray as she rolls on the ground.
Trautsch warned Black, “That’s enough, there could be cameras.”
“That can be done for no other purpose than the infliction of pain, to spray OC (pepper spray) on to a lady’s back who has been at various stages dragged or fallen on to the floor,” crown prosecutor Nicholas Marney said.
Paramedics witnessed the assault and took the woman to Nepean Hospital.
Image credits: NSW.gov
A hospital worker asked Black if he had sprayed her genitals. Black replied: “Yes, you have to do what you have to do.”
A full investigation was launched, and both Black and Trautsch were initially suspended without pay.
Black also sent a section of the video of the incident to a fellow officer through Facebook Messenger.
He wrote, “She was f****d the whole body worn [footage] is so good shows her being fucked. Nurses are lodging a complaint [another officer] is investigating because we caved her, but she had a hold of the cuffs and we had no other options.”
Both officers resigned from the force after being suspended.
Judge Graham Turnbull said he was considering releasing a pixelated version of the 20-minute video, expressing concern that police redactions had “dehumanized” the woman by blurring her too much.
Black and Trautsch admitted to assault and misuse of a prohibited weapon. Black also pleaded guilty to two counts of intentionally sharing protected information.
Judge Turnbull is considering releasing a pixelated version of the video to the public
Image credits: Penrith Criminal Law Center
The court heard that both officers claimed psychological injury. Trautsch sought workers’ compensation.
Barrister David Baran, representing the NSW Police, said the compensation claim was “resisted” by the force, citing that any psychological injury during the January 2023 attack was the result of Trautsch’s own actions.
Black also filed a compensation claim, citing previous trauma from witnessing violent incidents and a lack of support from the force.
Medical experts said he had pre-existing PTSD and later contracted a liver infection from exposure to the woman’s bodily fluids during the attack.
The case continues as the court prepares to sentence the two former officers on July 15.
Judge Turnbull is expected to decide whether the footage will be released to the public at a later date.