Unlawful arrest ends in $400k payout

A Melbourne man subjected to ‘unnecessary force’ in a police raid then released without charge will receieve $400,000.

Eathan Cruse has been awarded $400,000 over a raid on his parents’ Melbourne home. Picture: David Geraghty

The Supreme Court has ordered the state of Victoria to pay $400,000 to a man assaulted during a police anti-terror raid and will refer the case to the state’s anti-corruption body after ruling the arrest unlawful.

Eathan Cruse sued the state for unspecified damages after he was assaulted by police during his arrest at his parents’ southeast Melbourne home in April 2015 as part of Operation Rising to thwart a suspected terror ­attack on Anzac Day. Mr Cruse, then 19, was arrested in connection to a plot to behead a police officer, but was released without charge hours after his arrest.

Judge Melinda Richards yesterday found the arrest was unlawful and police didn’t have reasonable grounds to suspect him of committing a terrorism offence. She found officers ­arrested Mr Cruse, who is indigenous, because they had been directed to do so.

“On the evidence before me, Mr Cruse became a person of interest because he was a friend of Numan Haider and is Muslim,” she said. Haider was shot dead in Melbourne after attacking two police officers with a knife in a “lone-actor” act of terror in September 2014.

Eathan Cruse shows bruises on his neck he says were the result of police. Picture: Channel 9.

Justice Richards also said police used unnecessary force arresting Mr Cruse. Outside court he said he felt “vindicated” and was glad the case was over.

Police Minister Lisa Neville yesterday flagged an appeal of Justice Richards’s decision.

In her judgment, Justice Richards said despite Mr Cruse making a complaint to Victoria Police Professional Standards Command in 2015, it appeared no action had been taken against any of the officers involved.

“At no stage has the state ­acknowledged what occurred, or expressed regret or contrition for the conduct of its police officers,” she said. She added the state failed to establish police had some factual basis for arresting Mr Cruse yet defended the case on the basis it was a lawful arrest.

Justice Richards found Mr Cruse was cuffed in a hallway ­before being assaulted by police, including strikes around the head and upper body. She also found a NSW officer, Operator 27, slammed him into a fridge.

Operator 27 had told the court Mr Cruse had “lightly been pushed” into the fridge after slipping in his own blood.

In her judgment Justice Richards said she didn’t make the findings lightly. “I am acutely conscious that it is a serious matter to find that police officers beat a man who was restrained and defenceless, and that my findings may have adverse consequences for Operator 27 and the other officers involved.”

The house in Eumemmerring where Eathan Cruse, 19, was arrested. Picture: David Crosling

Justice Richards said Mr Cruse suffered a concussion, a cut to his ear and bruising as well as major depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Justice Richards said she would be referring the matter to the state’s anti-corruption body.

She awarded Mr Cruse $400,000, including aggravated damages of $80,000 and $200,000 for pain and suffering.

Justice Richards said exemplary damages of $100,000 were appropriate to emphasise the need for Victoria Police to ­ensure against similar abuses.