Police Officers Plead Guilty To Assaulting Woman During Welfare Check
Image: NSW Police/Facebook
Two NSW Police officers have pleaded guilty to using unlawful force against a naked woman suffering a mental health episode during a welfare check in Western Sydney two years ago.
Senior constable Nathan Black and constable Timothy John Trautsch made a welfare check on a 48-year-old schizophrenic woman at Emu Plains on 22 January 2023.
The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had been released earlier that day from Amber Laurel women’s prison. She had been prescribed an antipsychotic but was not taking the medication at the time.
Black and Trautsch, then 27 and 26, talked to the woman and tried to get her into an ambulance.
Footage played at a sentence hearing at Penrith district court on Thursday shows the woman sitting naked on a nature strip, telling officers she would “put them both down” and that “aliens were watching”.
The woman attempts to run away from the pair, but Black and Trautsch tackle her to the road. Over the next 18 minutes, bodyworn camera and CCTV footage capture the officers’ increasingly violent assault against the vulnerable woman.
Throughout the attack, the woman was kicked twice in the head, punched, and dragged by her hair. She was also sprayed six times with pepper, or OC, spray into her face, vagina, and on her grazed back.
“That can be done for no other purpose than the infliction of pain, to spray OC on to a lady’s back who has been at various stages dragged or fallen on to the floor,” said crown prosecutor Nicholas Marney.
Paramedics who witnessed the assaulted flagged the incident after rushing the woman to hospital. One asked Black if they had sprayed the woman’s genitals.
“Yes, you have to do what you have to do,” he replied.
Police continue “to endanger the community” in mental health cases, MP says
After the incident, Black sent sections of the video to another police officer on Facebook.
“She was fucked, the whole body worn [footage] is so good shows her being fucked,” Black wrote.
“Nurses are lodging a complaint [another officer] is investigating because we caved her, but she had a hold of the cuffs and we had no other options.”
A full investigation was launched and both Black and Trautsch were suspended without pay.
Black and Trautsch both pleaded guilty to charges of assault and misusing a prohibited weapon regarding the pepper spray. Black also pleaded guilty to two counts of intentionally publishing protected information.
Prosecutors told the court the pair failed to seek reinforcements or support from outside services, and instead just “used violence”.
Judge Graham Turnbull will make his determination on the footage as part of the sentencing process in the coming week. He is also considering releasing a pixelated version of the footage, and has raised concerns that the vision provided by police “dehumanised” the woman.
Black and Trautsch resigned from NSW Police before they could be formally fired, with the former launching a workers’ compensation claim against his previous employer.
NSW Greens MP and spokesperson for justice Sue Higginson has renewed calls for reform of NSW Police in light of the assault, and said there was a “serious cultural problem” within the institution.
“It is clear from this incident that police are continuing to endanger the community when they are called to respond to people experiencing mental health issues,” she said in a statement issued on Thursday evening.
“We know that misogyny, racism, victim-blaming and bigotry is rife throughout the NSW Police force and it’s violating the people the state should be protecting. The people of NSW should not have to wait for the outcome of the current cultural review that is underway for the Government to act to change toxic police culture.
“The Greens-led mental health inquiry made clear recommendations to the NSW government for police reform and investment in mental health supports. If the government fails to implement these recommendations, cases like these will only become more frequent.”
The woman died due to unrelated circumstances 18 months after the assault.
