WARNING: DISTRESSING IMAGES
Security footage has emerged showing police officers repeatedly hitting a teenager with a baton as they tried to restrain him in a solitary confinement cell.
Indigenous 17-year-old Jason* had been detained in a police watchtower south of Brisbane for five days on August 7 last year when the incident took place.
Police checkpoints are intended to isolate and monitor serious criminals while they await court appearances.
The LegalAid Queensland website states that an arrestee will generally “not remain in a security lockup for more than a few days”.
Jason was held in the cell with no sunlight and only a thin mattress and a blanket for five days on a host of charges including car theft.
At the time of the incident, Justin was resting from his cell in an exercise yard.
He had attracted the attention of two guards when he tried to shout to his brother, who was in a separate part of the guardhouse.
Security footage has emerged showing police officers repeatedly hitting a teenager with a baton as they tried to restrain him in a solitary confinement cell.
Police used the intercom to ask him to stop yelling. Two officers then walked down the hallway to the exercise yard door and asked him to return to his cell.
Jason complied and moved part of his mattress into his cell before returning for his blanket.
Two officers then entered the exercise yard and Jason swore at them. However, he did not physically attack them. The officers then attacked him.
The images, obtained by ABC, 7.30 Reportshowed an officer hitting Jason several times in the knees with the baton, before he fell to the ground.
The officer twisted his arm behind his back before throwing him to the ground. A third officer came to help restrain the teen.
He was escorted to his cell, before an officer pinned him to the bench with his knee. He was locked inside after an officer removed his handcuffs.
The incident lasts about two minutes.
Jason lodged a formal complaint about the restraint with the Queensland Public Defender’s Office, arguing that the use of force was excessive.
However, the investigation, overseen by the state’s anti-corruption watchdog, backed the officer’s actions and said the use of force was “legal” as the teenager had “grabbed the officer around the waist.”
“Using three individuals to restrain one person reinforces the level of aggression that the officers were facing at that particular time,” Chief Superintendent Wildman said.
One officer can be seen striking the teenager several times with a baton while the other holds his arm behind his back in an incident police say was “lawful and reasonable” (pictured).
A spokesperson for Queensland’s Children and Family Commission told Daily Mail Australia that “care homes are not places for children”.
“Violence against children is never acceptable. Any report of ill-treatment of a child in detention is extremely worrying and must be urgently investigated and addressed,” the spokesperson said.
‘Our review into the use of surveillance centres to detain children in Queensland made a number of recommendations to phase out the practice, and we continue to call for these recommendations to be implemented.’
Queensland Police confirmed an investigation overseen by Crime and Corruption was carried out following Jason’s report.
“The matter has been closed and the investigation determined that the actions of the members involved were lawful and reasonable and did not require further action,” a Queensland Police spokesman said.
The spokesman confirmed that all officers involved “are still performing operational duties.”
