www.ntnews.com.au/article/2010/05/04/144301_ntnews.html
you can go to the website and see a mobile video of the event.
A DARWIN family is furious after their 13-year-old son had to be taken to hospital after allegedly being assaulted by police.
They are threatening to sue the police over the incident, in which the boy was driven face-first into the corner of a planter box.
He was left bruised and bleeding but instead of being given medical attention, he was thrown into the back of a paddy wagon.
The boy, Ian Manolis, said police approached him when he was mucking around with friends and “shadowboxing” at the Casuarina Square food court about 4pm on Friday, April 23. They sat him down and questioned him, but after a while he said he’d had enough and got up to leave.
Ian said at this point a female Aboriginal Community Police Officer grabbed him by the arm and “slung him” into a male constable. Ian alleged that constable then assaulted him, wrenching his arms up behind him.
“He put his elbow in the back of my head and drove my face straight into the corner (of the box),” he said.
“They split the bridge of my nose and drove me into the bottom of the seat.
“There was all blood everywhere and they didn’t care.”
Ian’s mother Jennifer Talbot said she raced to Casuarina police station when she learned police were holding her son.
“I walked in, there’s blood on his shirt and everything,” she said. “He’s only 13. I had to walk through 12 cops to get to him.”
Ian was not charged with any wrongdoing. He was taken to hospital and his medical documents show a suspected fracture.
Police spokeswoman Amy Sloan confirmed the boy was injured after officer tried to issue him with a “loitering notice”.
“Police tried several times to calm him down and hold him still whilst issuing the notice,” she said.
“Due to his disorderly behaviour, members attempted restrain him by lying him down on the bench seat – each holding one of his arms. He at this time sustained a cut to the bridge of his nose.”
She encouraged anyone who was unhappy with their treatment by police to make a formal complaint at a police station.
But when she went to complain, Ms Talbot said the desk officer at Casuarina would not give her a PROMIS case number for the incident, pretending not to know what she meant. She had to go to police headquarters at Berrimah to follow it up.
Ian’s father Manuel said an internal complaint was not enough and he had spoken at a lawyer about suing police for assault.
He said he was seeking witnesses to the incident and CCTV footage from Casuarina Square.
Ian Manolis photographed shortly after the incident. Picture: SUPPLIED
