New footage shows NRL player tasered by police while handcuffed
Canberra Raiders centre Curtis Scott was drunk and disorientated when he was handcuffed, pepper-sprayed and tasered by police.
Police officers then threatened to taser a moaning and collapsed Scott another time if he lashed out again.
‘DISGRACE’: Phil Gould rocked by 'devastating' allegations
TRAGIC: Boyd Cordner's cousin 'fighting for life' after accident
Body cam footage taken in the early hours of January 27 at Sydney's Moore Park was played in a Sydney Local Court on Thursday, before the 22-year-old was cleared of all remaining charges against him.
Magistrate Jennifer Giles said she did not have the “stomach” to watch the professional footballer being tasered a third time after two separate videos were played of the event.
Scott was originally charged with seven offences including two for assaulting a police officer, but all were dropped bar two on Wednesday.
A Sydney magistrate has recoiled in horror after witnessing the moment @NRL player Curtis Scott was tasered by police. He can be heard screaming in police body cam vision having already been pepper sprayed in the face. https://t.co/Y6OQWX0Mgt @LeonieFRyan #7NEWS pic.twitter.com/mCw4DgBxdD
— 7NEWS Sydney (@7NewsSydney) September 10, 2020
He had pleaded guilty to two counts of behaving in an offensive manner near a public place, but these charges were dismissed by Ms Giles who said Scott was smart enough to learn from the incident which had been “punishment enough”.
“Being capsicum-sprayed while handcuffed and not decontaminated for 19 minutes is much worse than any punishment I can inflict on you,” she said.
In the video footage police can be seen asking Scott more than 20 times to get up to which he originally responds that he is “obviously” getting dressed, then repeatedly that he has “done nothing wrong”.
Trying but failing to drag him onto his feet, police administer pepper spray into his face which causes him to moan and yell he is “dying”.
He swats police away with his hands in cuffs.
After tasering Scott one police officer can be heard saying, “If you lash out again I'll f***ing taser you again”.
Lawyers want $100k compensation for Curtis Scott
Scott's lawyer Sam Macedone says the tasering was inappropriate and unwarranted after Scott followed officers' instructions not to resist arrest and merely “raised his voice”.
But police prosecutor Rebecca Becroft questioned how long police officers were meant to wait for Scott to sober up, and that it would have been dangerous to him and society to leave him in such a state.
Hours before the incident Scott had been drinking heavily with friends at swanky establishment The Ivy before losing his way home.
CCTV video footage shows Scott repeatedly kicking a bike outside the Olympic Hotel in Paddington.
He then punches a taxi cab and throws his phone at a passing car from the middle of the road, according to the agreed facts.
“God that could have killed me,” the driver of the car said in a statement.
Mr Macedone said Scott lost a Nike sponsorship as a result of the charges, while the “NRL came down so hard on him” he was worried he would lose his career.
Ms Giles said the experience had taken its toll on the NRL player who has since remained sober for more than five months, and that he was unlikely to repeat similar behaviour.
“If you drink alcohol and become a bore, a nuisance and frighten people...then don't drink,” she said.
Mr Macedone argued that police prosecutors should pay legal costs of more than $100,000, saying the initial investigation was “unreasonable”.
But Ms Becroft said it was “absurd” that a two-day trial could have “incurred such an extravagant amount of money”.
Ms Giles is set to hand down her decision about costs on September 25.