A New South Wales police officer has been found guilty of assaulting a 16-year-old Indigenous boy in inner Sydney in 2020 when he arrested him and threw him to the ground using an unofficial “leg sweep” manoeuvre.
Magistrate Rami Attia on Monday found constable Ryan Barlow guilty of occasioning actual bodily harm, dismissing claims the officer had felt threatened when the teenager of slight build said that he would “crack you across the fucking jaw, bro” from four metres away.
The case garnered national attention when mobile phone footage of the violent arrest – taken by the boy’s friends – was posted online. That footage, along with body-worn camera footage from Barlow and other officers present, was central to the case.
The footage showed the moment the teenager made the threat towards the officer after he and his friends were approached in Ward Park, Surry Hills. It also showed the following six seconds in which the officer told the teenager to turn around and get on the floor, telling him he would arrest him for threatening him.
The magistrate found that Barlow gave the teenager 3.02 seconds to comply with his demands, during which time he had hold of him and then proceeded to employ a “leg sweep” technique, holding his arms behind his back and kicking his feet, causing him to fall forwards.
The boy’s face, shoulder and hip made contact with the ground, before the officer pinned the boy to the floor using his knees while he reached for handcuffs.
The magistrate said the footage showed that the teen was “clearly and audibly in significant pain” and afterward struggled to stand up when asked to do so, saying he could not feel his knee.
The magistrate found the police officer’s account was “difficult to follow in some instances” and did not accept his claims that the teenager had moved his legs in a way that indicated he was trying to kick him in the groin.
“I cannot see what actions were taken by the complainant that constitutes a resistance to arrest,” Attia said on Monday morning at the Downing centre courts.
“There was no further threat. There was certainly no further abusive language.
“The risk of danger … was either minimal or nonexistent,” he added, as he dismissed the officer’s claim he deployed the “leg sweep” to defend himself.
Attia outlined that the 16-year-old was of slight build, not armed and, while he did make a verbal threat, did so from a distance and while stationary in a neutral pose.
“He made no movement towards the defendant, he did not say anything after,” Attia said, going on to explain the boy did not run away when the officer approached him, nor did he resist when he was grabbed and turned around before being forced to the ground.
“The defendant gave the complainant no opportunity to comply with the command.”
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The court heard the teenager was laughing and joking before the altercation and was not aggressive despite his use of “crude” language.
The technique used to get him to the ground is not a method taught to NSW police officers and carries a risk of injury. It is not banned.
Barlow will be sentenced at a later date. He declined to comment on the outcome as he left court.
The National Justice Project’s associate legal director Emma Hearne, who represented the teenager’s family, said the decision represented a “warning to NSW Police that they need to change their practices”.
“We will continue our work in holding police to account for misconduct against the community in order to drive a change in culture,” she said outside court.
“I have no doubt many others suffer similarly from police brutality, and today’s outcome is likely a result of the footage which provided clear evidence of what occurred. I hate to think what could have happened if bystander footage wasn’t available.”
The use of force by police officers has again been in the news over the past week after a 95-year-old woman was Tasered in a Cooma nursing home.
Clare Nowland was using a walking frame when she was Tasered in the early hours of last Wednesday, after she allegedly failed to drop a steak knife.