Two former NSW police officers have pleaded guilty to violently assaulting a woman with schizophrenia during an arrest in Western Sydney in 2023.
Timothy John Trautsch, 30, and Nathan Black, 28, were caught assaulting, kicking, stomping on and pepper spraying the woman, who was having a mental health episode in a street.
Footage of the incident resulted in charges towards the officers including assault occasioning actual bodily harm in company, common assault and using a prohibited weapon. The two men have pleaded guilty to these charges, with Black also pleading guilty to two counts of intentionally publishing protected information.
On Thursday, a Penrith District Court was told that the woman was in a florid state of psychosis, and that she had been prescribed an antipsychotic but was not taking the medication at the time.
The officers were called to Emu Plains cul-de-sac on 22 January 2023 for a welfare check on the 48-year-old women. The pair found her sitting on the ground and subsequent treatment of her was recorded on body-worn camera and nearby CCTV.
The footage played in court showed the officers first tried to get her into an ambulance, with the pair’s violence towards her escalating over the course of an 18-minute assault.
It’s been reported the woman, who can’t be named for legal reasons, was pushed to the road, kicked twice in the head, punched and dragged by her hair. She was also sprayed six times with pepper spray, with the court hearing some of the pepper spray was aimed at her genitals.
The Guardian reports that crown prosecutor Nicholas Marney said the actions of the officers “ can be done for no other purpose than the infliction of pain, to spray OC (pepper spray) on to a lady’s back who has been at various stages dragged or fallen on to the floor.”
Marney argued that there was no threat posed to the men as they were able to contain the woman by pushing her onto the road.
The footage showed the woman yelling and crying, while saying: “God, make me strong. God, make me strong,” she said over and over. “God, please. I’m sorry I didn’t listen. I’m sorry, God.”
At one point, she defecated on the road and on Black’s leg, with one of the officers heard saying: “Wash your dirty stinky arse”.
Reports say Black can be seen in the footage holding handcuffs, with the pair mentioning they needed a taser and long baton, with Trautsch seen laughing at one point.
During the incident, Trautch said to Black: “That’s enough, there could be cameras”.
In a message exchange following the incident, Black sent a colleague a 17-second video from his mobile phone showing the beginning of the incident and wrote: “She was f***ed the whole body-worn is so good shows her being f***ed.”
The court heard that after the paramedics attended to the woman, Black was asked by hospital staff if she had been sprayed with pepper spray on her genitals to which he replied: “Yes, you have to do what you have to do.”
The court also heard that the woman has since died, and that the circumstances were unconnected to her assault.
Trautch and Black no longer work for NSW police. The sentence hearing continues on 15 July.