POLICEMEN TO PAY

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 46, 18 November 1936, Page 11

POLICEMEN TO PAY

Wrongful Arrest of Sydney Citizen COSTS AND £3OO DAMAGES Sydney, November 17. The Premier, Mr. Stevens, announced that Cabinet had decided that the three police officers who were successfully proceeded against by Robert Manners for wrongful arrest and ill-treatment must pay their own costs and tlie £3OO damages awarded against them. Cabinet considered that tlie jury’s verdict should be regarded as binding. Cabinet’s decision is in spite of tlie fact that the Acting-Commissioner of Police, Mr. Lynch, recommended in bis report to the Government that the Crown should foot the bill. Cabinet directed that Sergeant Silcoek be reverted to uniform duty, and that Constables Murray and Roach be retained ou uniform duty.

Robert Percy Manners sued three Sydney policemen for wrongful arrest, false imprisonment and assault, and obtained judgment for £lOO and costs on each count, a total of £3OO damages. Manners, a journeyman printer, gave evidence that while going to his home late at night in the Redfern district he saw three men bundling another man into a car. He received a scare and began to run away, but was himself pursued, caught, and very roughly handled by two of the three men. who were Detective J. 11. Sileock. Constable G. Murray, and Constable G. Roach. Manners stated that he was punched and bullied, and finally taken by car to the police station, where he established a case of mistaken identity and was released. The police were apparently looking for a man who snatched a woman’s handbag. Each of the defendants denied assault. The Chief Justice, Sir Frederick Jordan, said that the police had no right to arrest a citizen unless they wore prepared to charge him with an offence immediately. Tlie treatment of Manners constituted serious assault.