Sergeant Jason Renwick said alleged grope ‘was an accident’

A senior police officer has admitted that he touched a colleague on the buttocks during a training drill but claims it was “an accident” and a situation that “went horribly wrong”.

Sergeant Jason Scott Renwick has pleaded not guilty to indecently assaulting the female officer during a training day last year. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

A senior police officer has admitted that he touched a colleague on the buttocks during a training drill but claims it was “an accident and nothing more”.

Sergeant Jason Scott Renwick, 49, gave an emotionally-charged testimony in the Brisbane District Court Tuesday morning, telling the jury he did not deliberately grab the junior officer’s colleague’s bottom during a firearm training exercise in February last year.

“As soon as I made contact I realise that I’d made contact with the bottom half of her buttocks,” sgt Renwick said.

“I immediately said sorry ‘don’t hate me’ and I laughed – I gave a nervous laugh.

“It went horribly wrong, I’m sorry for the damage I caused but it was an accident and nothing more.”

Queensland Police Sergeant Jason Scott Renwick leaves the District Court in Brisbane. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

Sgt Renwick has pleaded not guilty to indecently assaulting the junior officer during a stairwell drill at Ithaca TAFE campus in Red Hill.

The court was told the drill involved officers passing another officer, who was in a cover position, and squeezing them on the shoulder or hamstring before announcing when the “last man” had run the exercise.

Prosecutor Brendan White told the court that during the exercise Sgt Renwick groped the young constable then laughed.

The court heard the young constable asked him “What the f**k was that?”

Earlier in the trial, the Crown’s witness constable Alex Bray gave evidence by video that he was working a night shift after the alleged incident when Sgt Renwick admitted to him that he had “grabbed (the alleged victim’s) a***”.

“He further stated that it was a joke or something along those lines,” Const. Bray said.

But Sgt Renwick said this was a misunderstanding and he brought up the incident after he became aware of rumours circulating amongst the officers.

“I told Alex Bray that it was a joke that I had to be involved in putting a lid on these petty little rumours from petty little people,” Sgt Renwick said.

“When I said it was a joke I was speaking out of pure frustration.”

The court was told that Sgt Renwick had been with the Queensland Police Force for 20 years, rising to the rank of detective sergeant and winning multiple awards including the good conduct medal.

Sgt Renwick said firearms training was “not a game” and became visibly upset when describing how seriously he took training after losing colleagues in the line of duty.

During his closing statement, barrister Damian Walsh urged the jury to find Sgt Renwick not guilty and questioned why he would assault a colleague in front of so many people.

“No sergeant of police would do such a thing in front of all those police witnesses,” Mr Walsh said.

But prosecutor Brendan White said Sgt Renwick’s version of events was “utterly unbelievable”.

Judge Katherine McGinness sent the jury members awaythis afternoon to deliberate their verdict.