"A SERIOUS ASSAULT"

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 70, 19 September 1936, Page 9

"A SERIOUS ASSAULT"

SYDNEY POLICE CASE £3OO AWARD FOR WRONGFUL ARREST | SYDNEY, September 18. An action for damages, against three members of the police force who were sued for wrongful arrest, false imprisonment, and assault, ended today in favour of the plaintiff, Robert Percy Manners, who was awarded £IOO damages on each count, a total-Qf £3OO. The case caused • interest throughout the State. ■ ■ . \: Manners, who is , a journeyman printer, gave evidence that while going to his home late at night in the Red-, fern district he saw three : men bundling another man into a car. He received a scare and began to run away i but was himself pursued, caught, and very roughly handled by two of the three men, who were Detective J. H. Silcock, Constable G. Murray, and Constable G. Roach. Manners stated that he was punched, bullied, and finally taken by car to the police station, where he established a case of mistaken identity and was released. Thej 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 were, prepared to charge him with an offence immediately. The treatment of Manners constituted serious assault.