Eathan Cruse to sue police over alleged assaults in Anzac Day terror raids

A YOUNG man claims he was repeatedly kicked and punched by police while cuffed when arrested in a pre-dawn ANZAC Day terror raid.

POLICE have been accused of brutality during the arrest of a young man in a pre-dawn raid during an operation that foiled an Anzac Day terror plot in Victoria.

The man is suing for damages, claiming he was unlawfully and repeatedly assaulted by police during his arrest.

In a writ filed with the ­Supreme Court, Eathan Cruse is seeking unspecified compensation from Victoria and the Commonwealth, saying he has suffered chronic adjustment disorder with an anxious and depressed mood and post-traumatic stress disorder since his arrest soon after 3am on April 18, 2015.

Mr Cruse, who was aged 19 at the time, was not charged.

At the time, his mother said he had got a “flogging” after police smashed through doors and windows at their home in Eumemmerring, in Melbourne’s south east, where he had just finished watching a movie with his family.

At the time, Mr Cruse said, “He grabs me, handcuffs me and says, ‘What’s your name?’ I said, ‘Eathan’. He said, ‘Yep, that’s the one’. He kicks me right across the face as my hands were cuffed.

“I don’t know if they’re gonna fix my door, I don’t know if they’re gonna fix my window, I don’t know if they’re going to apologise to my family … I’d like an apology.”

His writ says he heard loud noises and went to the kitchen door and on seeing armed men in the house, lay on his stomach.

Eathan Cruse shows bruises he claims were caused by the police when they raided his house. Pictures: Channel 9

After his hands were secured behind his back and while still on the ground, Mr Cruse alleges a Victorian or Federal police officer kicked or punched him in the head.

He says he was then taken into the kitchen and pushed into the fridge before being forcefully put to the ground on his stomach, where he says he was repeatedly kicked and punched to the back and side of the head, forehead, neck, face and body. He alleges he was then told to turn on his side and, when he did so, he was again punched or kicked.

He says a police officer then told him “there is a lot more where that came from, there is more to come”.

As he was being walked to a police vehicle and his mother asked if he was OK, Mr Cruse says an officer twisted or bent his hand very hard and whispered in his ear, “don’t you f---ing say a word”.

Mr Cruse says the use of force was unlawful because it was unnecessary because he was handcuffed, not threatening or posing any threat to police, and was complying with all directions.

He says the words spoken to him were also assaults because they were intended to instil in him a fear of violence that he reasonable believed would be carried out.

Mr Cruse alleges other ­officers aided and abetted the ­attacks by either encouraging them or assenting to them.

His writ says he is seeking unspecified damages for “significant” mental injury under the Wrongs Act.

A Victoria Police spokeswoman at the time said a complaint had been received regarding the treatment of one of the men arrested and it had been referred to the Professional Standards Command.

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