This article is more than 8 months old

This article is more than 8 months old

A Melbourne disability pensioner has told a court that three police officers punched, pepper-sprayed and wetted him with a high-pressure hose like a “dog”.

The Victoria police officers John Edney, Brad McLeod and Florian Hilgart are facing unlawful assault charges.

The trio allegedly bashed, pepper-sprayed and hosed down John Goutzoulas outside his Preston home in September 2017 after they were called for a welfare check.

“He was wetting me with the hose, like you would a dog,” Goutzoulas told the Heidelberg magistrates court on Thursday.

Before he was allegedly hosed down, he said he was dragged out of his front door, pepper-sprayed, pushed down and beaten.

“I didn’t expect it, the next minute I was on the ground,” he said. “They were all on top of me … I was pretty much assaulted.”

During and after the alleged attack he was in a “lot of pain” and he told the magistrate he had undergone two surgeries on his spine. He also previously had cancer treatment.

CCTV footage aired in court showed Goutzoulas begging the officers to leave him alone because he was going through withdrawal symptoms.

“Leave me alone, please leave me alone,” he said on the footage.

While he was on the ground, one of the officers is heard saying: “Get your fucking hands behind your fucking back.”

An officer is also seen repeatedly hitting the pensioner’s legs while he is on the ground.

Paramedics were called to the house and Goutzoulas was taken to Epping hospital. But the “humiliation” continued after the alleged assault, he said.

“The humiliation of walking through the hospital in just a gown and my underwear,” he said. “I was almost naked.”

He was forced to leave hospital in nothing but a gown and was barefoot as he waited for a taxi, he said.

The contested hearing will continue on Friday.