The ABC's 7.30 program has obtained footage of a 14-year-old boy being tasered by police in another case that raises questions about whether officers are adhering to operating procedures in their use of the devices.

Solicitor Kevin Henshaw from the Kempsey Aboriginal Legal Service says the Tasercam footage shows one of the worst cases of police brutality he has seen in his long career.

"Watching the tape, watching the child crying and screams, and the fact that police weren't really concerned, that was the most distressing part of this incident," he told 7.30.

"His treatment is akin to torture... no-one deserves to be treated like that."

The incident occurred at Crescent Head on the New South Wales mid-north coast. The region has big social problems fuelled by the toxic mix of youth, alcohol and drugs among a high Indigenous population.

The evening the boy was tasered, he was on day release from a rehab clinic. In the early evening he had been drinking with friends and confronted a man at a party in one of the houses.

They tried to fight other partygoers and the police were called. The boys fled and police caught up with them near the beach. Two were detained but the 14-year-old ran into the caravan park.

"The young person was hiding under a caravan, the police approached him and told him to get out from under the caravan," Mr Henshaw said.

"The second words the police uttered were threats to capsicum spray him."

Police went ahead and sprayed him with capsicum (OC) spray, then dragged him out from under the van.

In a police statement about the incident, Senior Constable Matthew Phillips said:

"Due to the violent nature of the young person, I decided to deploy my Taser as the situation was deteriorating and I felt this was the most appropriate tactical option. "Senior Constable Reid deployed a one-second burst of OC spray to the face of the young person. This appeared to have an immediate effect but the young person refused to get on the ground. "I administered the Taser again which also had an immediate effect."

Mr Henshaw says the teenager was struggling with the police.

"Struggling with big police, he didn't pose a physical threat to them, and on the second time he was tasered he was on his knees, crouching, he was not posing a threat," he said.

The Tasercam footage, obtained by 7.30, shows the teenager telling the police: "I can't see, I can't see. I'm going to die... Help me, please, please Matt, help me, Matt, I'm gonna die."

The footage documents the next 15 minutes as he struggles to breathe and begs for help.

"I want to be with my mum," he said. "Matt, I want to be with my mum."

Mr Henshaw says this shows the trauma the boy was going through.

"The thing that struck greatest in my mind was the child crying out for his deceased mother, that shows how traumatised the child was," he said.

The footage then shows police telling the teenager, "You can breathe. Don't be ridiculous", before pouring water over him.

By now the boy was handcuffed and not resisting, but police continue to threaten him with tasering.

After he calls them "motherf***ers", he is told: "Keep up the language and I'll zap you again, understood? So shut your mouth.

"If you f***ing swear one more time, I am going to f***ing light you up again, understand? You're not getting the message, are you?"

When he appeared in court in Kempsey, the boy pleaded guilty to affray. A charge of resisting arrest was dismissed.

Dysfunctional community

Those who knew the 14-year-old tell 7.30 that he was up against it from the start. When he was seven years old, his mother died, and since then he has been raised by a variety of relatives with no strong role models and little stability.

As one person put it, the boy grew up in a dysfunctional community awash with alcohol.

The boy's grandmother, who cannot be identified because of her grandson's age, lives at an Aboriginal mission inland from Kempsey. She wishes her grandson had spent more time there.

"He was angry with society, me myself, his dad, the police force, school," she told 7.30.

"I don't know what I could do for him, but deep in his heart there is a good kid, a warrior waiting to come out."

She says he started getting in trouble because of peer pressure and following the wrong crowd.

"Sometimes he would stay in a different household every night. It wouldn't surprise me if he hasn't slept under the bridge which is where some young homeless people in Kempsey stay," she said.

Jan Easson has just retired as principal of the local vocational college, which the boy attended. She says she has done her best to help him, but fears for his future.

"For a couple of years there, school was the only place where he could stabilise, but then of course you get the weekends and the holidays when all of that comes undone again," she said.

"He is getting very close to getting away from us.

"If he reaches the point where he doesn't trust in the community, he feels he has nothing to lose, he is a very bright young man, he and people like him become very dangerous individuals."

The boy's grandmother says police should be made to answer for their actions.

"They already sprayed him and then tasered him - he is only a little boy," she said.

"They could have held him down and handcuffed him the way they do it on television. I don't think he was that violent."

'Building hatred'

Mr Henshaw complained to the NSW Ombudsman about the treatment of his young client, and the case was one of those looked at in the report into how Tasers are used by the state's police.

"It has made an angry young boy even angrier," he said.

"He is a child who comes from a background where he has been exposed to violence and in many respects it is building a hatred towards the police."

Under the heading, Deficient Complaint Investigations by the NSWPF, the Ombudsman's report says:

"We were not satisfied that police officers had reasonable grounds for multiple use of a Taser on a juvenile during his arrest, and disagreed with the finding that the actions of police complied with the Taser SOPs (standard operating procedures)."

Mr Henshaw says it is hard to see how the police actions could be warranted.

"They thought the treatment was within the guidelines," he said.

"This is one of my concerns, the police investigating police and taking no action for obvious abuses of police powers and police instructions."

NSW Police would not agree to an interview on the incident, but provided 7.30 with a statement saying:

"Police were forced to use a Taser after trying unsuccessfully to physically restrain and arrest the offender."

The boy, who is now in juvenile detention in Grafton, is planning to take civil action against the state of New South Wales for unlawful arrest and assault.

The case is the latest in a series of incidents where questions have been asked about whether standard operating procedures were adhered to.

On Wednesday, two major investigations which included evidence on Tasers will be completed.

In Sydney, the NSW coroner will hand down her findings in the inquest into the death of Brazilian student Roberto Laudisio Curti.

In Brisbane, the deputy coroner will hand down her findings in the case of Antonio Galeano, who died shortly after being repeatedly tasered by police in North Queensland.