Cop basher Steven Cleary ordered to pay officer $75,000 in compensation

A brute captured in shocking bodycam footage attacking a police officer with a baseball bat has been ordered to pay his victim $75,000 but a judge has saved him from having to sell his house as it could risk his rehabilitation.

A cop basher jailed over a sickening baseball bat attack on two policemen has avoided having to sell his house to pay out compensation because it could risk his rehabilitation.

Steven Cleary was sentenced to at least one year and 10 months jail over the disturbing Warrnambool assault, where he ambushed two policemen because they’d asked a teenager to wear a face mask during Covid-19 restrictions.

Pulling up in his car, Cleary launched a minute-long attack in October 2021 where the officers were beaten, had their own taser turned on them and their gun grabbed.

They managed to overpowered the thug as he demanded them to, “Take your hands off me, I am the king”.

The 51-year-old stood to lose his house to pay out compensation for one officer, who “thought I was going to die” as he was repeatedly bashed in the head with the bat.

Senior Constable Rowan Baldman said his vision went blurry. Picture: Supplied

The young officer has been unable to work since January as he suffers PTSD and pain from injuries inflicted by Cleary in the assault that was captured on shocking body-worn camera footage.

He launched a County Court compensation claim against Cleary to help pay for his ongoing treatment, with a psychologist stating he may have to quit the force and relocate from Warrnambool.

A County Court judge last week saved the brute from having to sell his Warrnambool house, which has more than half a million dollars of equity.

Instead, Cleary was ordered to pay $75k for the policeman’s treatment and $10k towards his legal fees.

Judge Caitlin English found that the “burden of a compensation order will likely have a negative effect on (Cleary’s) prospects for rehabilitation”.

Noting Cleary’s untreated mental illness, Her Honour said if the compensation claim forced Cleary to sell the family home – where his wife and two younger sons lived – it was “unlikely to assist (his) rehabilitation”.

Steven John Cleary faces up to 20 years jail. Picture: Supplied

The crim was found to have no income, having been on disability support since 1997 for a bad back, with his sole asset being his house that was jointly owned with his wife who has multiple sclerosis.

Judge English found the burden of any order to pay the officers he bashed would “be a high one”, and settled on the $85k sum.

The cash would help pay the officer’s counselling, which he required “regularly” for three years.

The policeman earlier told the court that he was “once proud to wear my uniform in public, but I now feel like a high visibility target when standing in public places”.

The shocking sight of Steven John Cleary with the baseball bat. Supplied

“I feel like anybody who is intent on doing me harm, can easily locate me and overwhelm me with the element of surprise. I am extremely conscious of people getting behind my back and am often looking over my shoulder and turning around in circles to watch my back. This kind of hypervigilance and anxiety is exhausting.”

Meanwhile Cleary, who had a “longstanding and significant psychopathology, a delusional belief he is the ‘legitimate sovereign’ or King of Australia and conspiratorial beliefs”, could already be on bail.

Cleary’s sentence – of a minimum one year and 10 months and maximum three years and two months – caused uproar when it was handed down in July 2022.

The police union called for the Office of Public Prosecutions to appeal, stating that the “sentence doesn’t fit the crime”, but an appeal was not lodged.

With time already served, Cleary was expected to be granted parole this August.