31 August - 6 September, 2008, tasers were deployed against Kevin Spratt at least 41 times at the Perth Police Watch House, mostly in drive-stun mode.
6 September, 2008, tasers were deployed 27 times in under 9 hours during 3 incidents, against Mr Spratt.
A police officer told the CCC he supplied an incorrect statement of material facts to the criminal court on a charge of obstruction against Mr Spratt. Fowler was not present at the time of the alleged obstruction. He said at the CCC that he was wrongly informed by two other officers, and also told not to correct the statement by an investigator from IA, whose name he could not recall. The obstruction conviction has been quashed.
31 August, 2008
• Sergeant Aaron Grant Strahan and Detective First Class Constable Brett Fowler arrested Spratt
• Mr Spratt was tasered:
• 14x at the Perth Watchhouse,
• 4x by Senior Constable Troy Tomlin and,
• 10 times by Sgt Grant Strahan,
allegedly, because he would not take his clothes off.
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| Shadow Attorney General John Quigley and Kevin Spratt at the Rally for Humanness in November 2010 copyright Broly Turles |
• 5: 30am, Bayswater police officers allege an attempted burglary was reported, and that they found Mr Spratt in a park nearby, and that when they confronted him, he argued with them and took his clothes off.
• 6am, he was arrested and tasered 2x in probe-mode and 5-6 times in drive-stun mode, for not getting into the police van, officers alleged. No footage of this incident has been publicly released.
• 10:30am Snr Const Darren Skelton, in dealings with Kevin Spratt at the Watchhouse, deployed his taser 8x in under 3 minutes.
• Skelton told the Inquiry, “it basically charged him up like the energizer bunny.” No footage of this incident has been publicly released.
• A fellow officer Constable Grigg, present at the 10:30 tasering, complained to Internal Affairs about excessive force used but has since retracted her statement, saying she did not know what to expect because she was inexperienced as a police officer compared to the others.
• About 2:30pm, 2 senior officers from the Emergency Services Group deployed tasers against Mr Spratt 11 times in 3 minutes in a “cell extraction,” with 5 other ESG prison officers.
A senior ESG officer told the CCC Mr Spratt’s alleged attempts to sit and stand during the “cell extraction,” “could be a form of attack.” The other senior ESG officer refuted that Mr Spratt’s injuries were caused by the ESG.
“Mr Spratt was later diagnosed the following day suffering from at least one, possibly other fractures of the ribs and a collapse of his lung and pneumothorax. His right shoulder was dislocated with a comminuted fracture of the humerus,” Mr Quinlan, Counsel Assisting, said at the CCC opening hearing.
Counsel Assisting, Mr Quinlan outlined that tasering in drive-stun mode inflicts sudden pain whereas probe mode incapacitates the muscle system. Probe-mode taser use has been criticized by police for not making contact reliably.
The inquiry is ongoing...
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