Port Macquarie Local Court: Latea Cunningham pleads not guilty to assault charges over alleged NSW Police melee

After viewing “atrocious” footage of a young woman allegedly assaulting several cops during an arrest, a magistrate declined to watch on, saying “we’ve seen the extent of her aggression”.

Port Macquarie Police Station. Picture: File.

After viewing “atrocious” footage of a young woman allegedly assaulting several cops during an arrest, a magistrate declined to watch on, saying “we’ve seen the extent of her aggression”.

Latea Cunningham faced Port Macquarie Local Court on Thursday in a bid to have her matter diverted from criminal proceedings, and instead dealt with under the mental health system.

The 23-year-old was charged with assaulting a police officer in the execution of duty causing actual bodily harm, and two further charges of assaulting police.

Cunningham was also slapped with a charge of common assault on a person – not a police officer.

The charges were laid after an alleged incident between 8.40 and 9pm on December 25 last year, in which the alleged assault was captured on body worn camera by police.

Latea Cunningham is facing several charges involving assaulting and resisting police officers at Port Macquarie. Picture: Facebook.

The violent footage, played in court on Thursday, shows Cunningham swearing at officers and yelling “is it normal to be dragging me?”

An officer then replies “is it normal to assault a police officer?”

After playing the three-minute video, the police prosecutor, who was arguing against the matter being diverted to the mental health system, requested to play more footage “from inside the police car” but magistrate Peter Feather declined.

“We’ve all seen the extent of her aggression, do I need to see any more?” Mr Feather said before moving onto his findings.

He accepted a report from a psychologist stating that Cunningham had a mental health diagnoses including a major depressive disorder, general anxiety and borderline dependent personality features.

The report went on to say Cunningham had felt isolated and targeted after an argument escalated at a home prior to her arrest.

Mr Feather told the court her behaviour depicted in the video was “atrocious” and that there was a strong prosecution case against her.

Ultimately he ruled he “was not satisfied that the public interest would be served by diverting the matter from the criminal to the mental health system” and declined the application.

After this ruling, Cunningham’s lawyer James Janke indicated his client would be pleading guilty to one of the charges of assaulting a police officer in the execution of duty but not guilty to the other charges.

The matter was adjourned to July 17.

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