Police officer Clinton Keith Hooper sues state for $1.4m

A Brisbane policeman set to be medically retired after a knife attack by a man alleged to have once talked about ‘suicide by cop’ has sued the state for the loss of his career.

Clinton Hooper, right, with colleagues from the Holland Park police station. File picture

A police officer left traumatised after his face was “repeatedly slashed” while serving a legal document on a man at his Brisbane home has sued the state for $1.4m in compensation for losing his career.

Clinton Keith Hooper, 43, sued the state in the Supreme Court for $1,363,309 alleging the state was negligent in sending him to the home on Hillgrove St in Upper Mount Gravatt on August 5, 2020.

He claims Savva Christopher Hatzipapas lunged at him and stabbed him in the face with a knife causing him to fall down, then stood over him and repeatedly slashed him with the knife.

Const. Hooper states he had drawn his taser and tried to deploy it when he was stabbed, the claim states.

“Calm down, we just want to talk to you,” Hooper told Hatzipapas seconds before the attack, the claim states.

Hatzipapas was shot in the stomach by his partner Snr Constable Renee Plant.

Paramedics had to staple Hooper’s face at the scene before he underwent multiple surgeries.

He says in his claim that his injuries were so severe that he is set to be medically retired from Queensland Police Service.

“The knife attack and the plaintiff’s consequential injury loss and damage was caused by the defendant’s breach of the duty which the defendant owed to the plaintiff,” the claim states.

In their defence the state denies this, arguing the attack was not reasonably foreseeable and Hatzipapas had been listed as a “violent person with mental health issues” on QPRIME.

The state submits that Hooper’s $1.4m claim is excessive and “contrary to disclosed medical opinion”, although it concedes he was injured in the attack and is due a smaller unspecified sum including to pay for future psychiatrist appointments.

“The methodology adopted and the sums claimed are not commensurate with the nature and extent of the plaintiff’s injuries,” the defence states.

“The plaintiff’s injuries were not caused or materially contributed to by any negligence or breach of contract of employment on the part of the (state) or as a consequence of any negligence of the plaintiff’s fellow QPS officers but was caused solely as a consequence of SCH’s premeditated, deliberate and intentional assault of the plaintiff,” the defence states.

He has been paid as part of a workers compensation claim.

Hooper, who has post traumatic stress disorder, claims that he checked the police computer system before he went to the Hillgrove St house, but there was no caution or flag warning about Hatzipapas actions in incidents in 2015, 2016 and 2018.

Hatzipapas had previously expressed a desire to commit “suicide by cop” in 2015, the claim states.

He alleges this occurred during an incident when he jumped up and down on the roof of a car outside the IGA in East Brisbane in 2015.

Police allegedly heard Hatzipapas say “he wanted police to finish him off” at the IGA.

Hooper, 44, states in his claim that if a proper risk assessment had been completed, the document could have been served on Hatzipapas at Holland Park police station, but the state denies this saying Hatzipapas “would not have attended” the police station.

He also argues that more officers should have been sent to the house instead of just two, Hooper and his partner senior constable Renee Plant.

The state says in their defence that Hooper did taser Hatzipapas before he was attacked but it did not work because Hatzipapas was wearing thick clothing.

Hooper argues if four police officers had come to the house that day, he would not have been stabbed because the officer’s would have deployed “multiple tasers” from “different angles”.

The state says the presence of four QPS officers at the house that day “would not have prevented the knife attack”.

No date has been set for hearing.

Hatzipapas was charged with attempted murder. The charge was discontinued on July 22, 2022, after he was found to have been of unsound mind by the Mental Health Court.

Originally published as Police officer Clinton Keith Hooper sues state for $1.4m