Queensland teenager recalls pain inflicted by police Taser

THE shock of 50,000 volts hit her 50kg frame without warning.

THE shock of 50,000 volts hit her 50kg frame without warning.

Struggling under the weight of a policeman and two burly security guards, the Taser's "drive stun" blast on the 16-year-old's thigh felt like a knife was being driven up and into her stomach.

"It was so painful; it was excruciating and horrible and painful," the now 17-year-old, who cannot be named, told The Australian.

"It stopped my whole body from moving. I didn't expect it. I didn't know what a Taser was and then there was 'zap'. I was screaming and crying and I can sort of remember this police officer telling me that he had used a Taser."

The girl was hardly an innocent. The stream of profanities and threats that had poured out of her mouth at the two Queensland police officers minutes before had raised the heat of what should have been a routine confrontation with a pack of unruly teenagers.

All that changed when one of the officers -- armed on the first night of an extended trial of the Tasers to general-duties police -- appeared to breach operating guidelines that ban the weapon being used on a juvenile "except in circumstances where there is no other reasonable option to avoid the imminent risk of injury".

The April incident, which was captured on closed-circuit television, is the subject of an investigation by the police ethical standards unit and the state's anti-corruption watchdog, the Crime and Misconduct Commission.

The girl's mother told The Australian yesterday she would sue the police after charges of obstructing the officers were dropped against her daughter in the Children's Court last Friday.

"She was no threat to those police," the mother said. "What they did to my daughter was disgusting. I was horrified when I saw the tape."

Queensland police have so far refused to release the CCTV footage to the girl's family and last week police prosecutors unsuccessfully opposed The Australian's covering the case in the Children's Court.

The incident has given weight to criticisms by lawyers and civil libertarians about the Bligh Government's announcement in January that it was going to arm more than 5000 frontline officers with Tasers, despite being barely six months into the trial.

It also follows NSW Ombudsman Bruce Barbour this week calling for a two-year freeze on further rollouts of Taser guns, saying police standards for their use were inadequate and the health risks unknown.

In Queensland, the CMC, which is helping to draft the final guidelines for the Taser rollout, last week wrote a letter accusing police of delivering a biased evaluation of the trial, which formally ended in June.

Speaking for the first time, the teenager said yesterday she was still stunned by how a Friday night out with friends had ended in court and a controversy that had attracted coverage around the world.

The trouble began, according to the girl, when a French tourist talking to the group tried to grope a friend and a fight broke out.

Security guards stopped the fight and then called an ambulance because one of her friends became dizzy.

Police arrived and ordered the group to leave, saying only one of the teenagers could remain to accompany her to hospital. They refused.

The CCTV footage shows a relatively calm standoff between the group and the two police officers and three security guards. After about 10 minutes, the male officer is seen reaching out towards the girl, who was sitting on the wall of a garden bed.

The policeman told the Children's Court the teenager had screamed "I'm gonna kill the bitch" to his female colleague, a claim denied by the girl.

"I had been yelling and swearing, but I didn't say that," she said.

"We just didn't want to leave because we wanted to make sure my friend got into the ambulance and got to the hospital. When he reached at me, I pushed his hand away and then I pushed down on the garden bed."

The footage shows another teenager lashing out at the male officer, and the 16-year-old girl kicking out as she lay in the garden bed, knocking the Taser off the policeman's belt.

The policeman then drove his forearm into the girl's neck to push her down on the garden bed. She sat back up and he pushed her down again.

"Then everybody started jumping on me: the policeman and the security guard and another guard who held my legs," the teenager said. "Then I felt the electric shock."

In the hearing, the police officer -- who said he believed at the time that the girl was between 16 and 20 -- conceded he might have breached guidelines.

"In hindsight, I can say yes, but at the time I didn't know she was a juvenile," he said.