POLICEMEN TO PAY

Kaikoura Star, Volume LVI, Issue 91, 19 November 1936, Page 3

POLICEMEN TO PAY

WRONGFUL ARREST CASE CROWN DISCLAIMS LIABILITY SYDNEY, November 17. The Premier, Mr B. S. Stevens, announced that Cabinet had decided, that , the three police officers who were successfully proceeded against by ■Robert Manners must pay their own costs and the £3OO damages awarded against them. Cabinet considered the jury’s verdict should be regarded as binding. Cabinet’s decision is in spite of the fa< t that Acting-Police Commissioner Lynch recommended in his report to the Government that the Crown should foot the bill. Cabinet directed that Sergeant Silrock be reverted to uniform duty, and that Constables Murray and Roach, be retained on uniform duty. The case concerns an action for damages brought against three members of the Sydney police force who were sued for wrongful arrest, false imprisonment and assault last September. The case ended in favour of the plaintiff, Robert Percy Manners, who 1 was awarded £lOO damages on each count (total £300) and has caused State wide interest. Manners, who is a jour-

• n-yman 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 hut was himself pursued and caught and very roughly handled by two of the three men. who happened to be Detective J. H. Silcock, 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 estab- . lished a case of mistaken identity and was released. The police were apparently looking for a man who snatched a lady’s handbag. Each of the defendants, Silcock. Murray, and Roache, denied assault. The Chief Justice. Sir Frederick Jordan, said the police had no right to arrest a citizen unless they wore prepared to charge him with an offence immediately. The treatment of Manners constituted a serious assault. -