Todd Apted: Off-duty cop learns fate for bashing stranger, lying

An off-duty cop, who has since left the service, has learned his fate after a jury found him guilty of bashing a stranger who was involved in a minor confrontation with the officer’s son.

Launceston Supreme Court. Picture: Patrick Gee

An off-duty Tasmania Police officer who has since left the service has been handed a suspended jail sentence and fined for assaulting a stranger who was allegedly involved in a minor confrontation with his son, then lying to investigators about what transpired.

Todd Barry Apted, 52, was previously found guilty by a jury of assaulting 24-year-old Juma Obeid at Tompsons Ln, Launceston on August 9, 2020 and subsequently perverting justice by concocting a falsified version of the altercation to police investigators.

Apted, a 24-year police veteran, resigned following the incident, Supreme Court Justice Robert Pearce said in his decision published on April 18.

Justice Pearce fined Apted $1500, jailed him for six months, wholly suspended for two years, and ordered he perform 84 hours of community service.

According to Justice Pearce, the assault on Mr Obeid was precipitated by a call Apted received from his teenage son, telling him a “man had abused him and punched the driver’s window of his car”.

Apted raced to the scene, where Mr Obeid was still present alongside a female friend.

“High quality CCTV obtained from an adjacent house provides cogent evidence of what happened next,” Justice Pearce said.

“After getting out of your car you said to Mr Obeid, ‘What the f--- is your problem you f---in piece of s---’ and advanced upon him.

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“He backed off down the road away from you but you continued to advance upon. You kicked out at him, shaped to fight and then began to throw punches.

“About five punches were thrown. One or two made contact but were only glancing blows. “You then wrestled him to the ground where you held him down.

“When you stood up you held his leg in the air so he couldn’t get up.”

Once Mr Obeid managed to find his feet again, he struck Apted, leaving him with a fractured eye socket, Justice Pearce said.

Apted, who was off-duty at the time of the assault, was interviewed by police investigators on September 1, 2020.

Reading from a prepared statement, he suggested Mr Obeid in fact approached he and his son and invited them to fight, and that he believed Mr Obeid was drug-affected and in possession of a knife.

“Your account was completely inconsistent with what can be seen and heard on the CCTV,” Justice Pearce said.

“It follows from the verdict on the pervert justice charge that a majority of the jury was satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that your statements to the police... were not only untrue, but were deliberate falsehoods intended to divert the investigating police from prosecuting you for assault.”

Apted had no relevant prior convictions and had been diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder, sustained in the course of his work as a police officer.

Originally published as Todd Apted: Off-duty cop learns fate for bashing stranger, lying