Foul-mouthed cop cleared after pushing spitting boy into fence

A Brisbane police officer has been cleared of using excessive force for grabbing a child and pushing him against a fence after the boy repeatedly spat on the ground during the Covid pandemic.

A foul mouthed police officer has been cleared of using excessive force for grabbing a child and pushing him against a fence after the boy repeatedly spat on the ground during the Covid pandemic.

Senior Constable Scott Anthony Edmonds faced Brisbane Magistrates Court where he pleaded not guilty to common assault.

The court heard a 12-year-old boy was one of several people arrested in Fortitude Valley in August last year for stealing liquor from a store.

Body-worn camera footage played to the court showed the youth “spitting violently” on the ground of a car park where he and others had been detained by police.

Snr Con Edmonds told the unhandcuffed youth “this is our workplace we don’t want to be f*****g walking through that spit”.

The child spat twice more over the course of a few minutes and Snr Con Edmonds verbally warned him not to each time.

When he spat a fourth time the officer grabbed his clothing around the collar area and pushed him against a fence immediately behind him, which constituted the alleged common assault.

“Do that again and you’ll be cuffed and put in the f****** van,” Snr Con Edmonds said.

“You won’t be a f***ing pig in my presence.”

The child, who was not injured by the push, spat a fifth time but quickly apologised for what appeared to be an inadvertent breach and Snr Con Edmonds did not react.

Prosecution witness Sgt Neil Harris, a police recruit trainer, said the pushing movement by Snr Con Edmonds was “a minimal use of force under the circumstances” and which followed repeated verbal commands.

Sgt Harris said the use of profanity was tactical in his opinion.

“If initial communication of using manners and being polite is not working the subject officer is allowed to change their level of communication and the language in which they use to try and seek to further get compliance,” he said.

Barrister Saul Holt KC said Sgt Harris seemed to have no criticism of his client’s actions at all.

“It’s very difficult to see how this force could ever have been, beyond reasonable doubt, not reasonably necessary in our respectful submission,” he said.

Magistrate Tina Previtera said taking into account the expert witness’s evidence that the force was minimal and in the context of there being four spitting incidents during a Covid pandemic followed by warnings escalating in tone, she found the force used by Snr Con Edmonson was reasonable and acquitted him.

“It’s not Snr Con Edmonds’ finest moment but it’s not a criminal offence,” she said.