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Camera IconImage Credit: Supplied/Supplied

Former WA cop charged with assault

AAPFremantle Gazette

A FORMER police sergeant has been charged with assaulting a man he was arresting.

Police allege the 45-year-old assaulted a man in Fremantle on September 3, 2017.

According to a Corruption and Crime Commission report released earlier this year, the man had been kicked out of a pub by a bouncer and was arrested after he allegedly refused to provide identification to police.

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The CCC said when he tried to light a cigarette, one officer tried to take it away and a struggle ensued.

The incident was caught on CCTV.
Camera IconThe incident was caught on CCTV. Credit: Supplied/Supplied

The man was wrestled to the ground and the officers used “empty hand tactics” to subdue him, including the sergeant striking him multiple times on the head.

The CCC concluded the force used to overcome the drunk man, which included a constable twisting the man’s finger until it dislocated, was excessive.

It formed an opinion of police misconduct against the sergeant and the constable, noting that CCTV footage of the alleged assault “speaks for itself”.

The matter was referred to the Internal Affairs Unit, and two police officers involved were stood down on June 6, 2018.

The sergeant, who resigned from the force in July, will appear in Fremantle Magistrates Court on June 28.

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