Inquiry told of invasive searches on teens at Lost City music festival in Sydney, where only five of 30 cases had support person present

This article is more than 9 months old

This article is more than 9 months old

A 15-year-old boy was told to “hold your dick and lift your balls up and show me your gooch” and a police officer “ran his hands around” the buttocks of a 17-year-old during two of 25 potentially illegal strip-searches conducted at an underage music festival in Sydney, an inquiry has heard.

On Monday the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission (LECC) began public hearings into the strip-search of “several young people” at the Lost City Music festival, an under-18s event held in Sydney in February.

The inquiry is investigating the strip-searches of three boys aged 15, 16 and 17 at the festival, none of which found any illegal drugs, as well as the “general question” of how police exercise their strip-search powers in New South Wales.

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On its opening morning the counsel assisting the commission, Peggy Dwyer, told the hearing at least 30 strip-searches were conducted on minors at the festival.

In NSW, officers must not conduct a strip-search outside a police station unless the urgency and seriousness of the situation requires it. In the case of minors, a parent or guardian must be present unless an immediate search is necessary to protect the person or prevent the destruction of evidence.

But the inquiry heard only five of the 30 searches were conducted in the presence of a support person. In one case, the support person provided to a 13-year-old girl was herself a minor; a 17-year-old girl from the Red Frog charity.

Dwyer read from statements given to the commission by all three boys, which included one by a 17-year-old who told investigators an officer had “ran his hands around his buttocks” during a search.

The use of strip search powers has been the focus of increasing scrutiny in NSW in recent months. Last month the state opposition called for a review of the legislation underpinning their use after Guardian Australia revealed police had strip-searched 122 girls, including two 12-year-olds in the past three years.

On Monday a senior police officer who had worked on at least 20 music festivals said he believed the legislation was too vague on the question of what constituted serious and urgent circumstances.

“Why are we even speaking about ambiguity with the legislation? It shouldn’t even be there,” the officer said. “It should be spelt out what seriousness and urgency is, because I’m sure everyone in this room would have a different opinion.”

The inquiry also heard evidence that two State Emergency Services volunteers had been organised to act as independent adults for children being strip-searched at the festival.

When the LECC’s chief commissioner Michael Adams, QC, questioned why they were suitable a senior officer at the event said they were members of a “very reputable organisation”.

Adams replied: “Yes, but it’s not part of their ordinary duties to watch naked young people be searched by police.”

The 15-year-old told investigators he was “so nervous he was shaking” during the strip-search.

“I mean, it was just … they all sort of like look at you and when there’s like 20 faces they all turn to you in that blue uniform. Like I felt like I just done something wrong but like, I’m just trying to go to a music festival,” he said.

Dwyer told the inquiry the 15-year-old was stopped after an indication from a drug dog. During the search, which was conducted without a parent or support person, he was told to lift his shirt and show his armpits before being asked to “pull his pants down”.

“And the officer told him, quote, to ‘hold your dick and lift your balls up and show me your gooch’,” Dwyer told the inquiry. A gooch is a slang term for the space between the testicles and anus.

Dwyer said the young person lifted his testicles and the officer “bent down to have a look, approximately one metre away from him”.

“I sort of froze for a bit I guess, like, cause … I had my shirt up and then he’s like, all right now like pull your pants down,” the 15-year-old said.

“And I was sort of like, just stood there for a bit like, are you sure? Like, do I just pull down my pants and show you everything or like what? And he’s like, no pull down your pants, hold your dick and lift your balls up and show me your gooch. And I was like ‘OK’.”

The inquiry heard that another 16-year-old boy, who was searched alone after he was found hiding a bum bag without any drugs inside, was told to “lift up his balls” and to “squat and cough” during the search.

During the search he asked police “why is this happening”.

During a third search, a 17-year-old was told to “grab his penis and to lift it up” before a male officer allegedly “inserted his hands inside” his underwear, “and made contact with his testicles”.

“It was just like checking in the undie bit. Like they were, like his hand was, like it was touching ’em and then he’s like ... moved to see if there’s like anything in the undies,” the 17-year-old said in a statement to the commission’s investigators.

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Dwyer told the inquiry it was further alleged that after touching the 17-year-old the officer “moved around behind” him, “placed both hands inside [his] shorts and ran his hands around his buttocks, in a circular motion, apparently in an effort to detect if drugs were concealed there”.

“The officer’s hands made contact on the young person’s skin,” Dwyer told the hearing.

The hearings form part of an investigation by the watchdog into the practice of strip-searching minors, amid increasing scrutiny of the possible misuse of the controversial police power.

Dwyer told the commission a strip search was “by necessity a grave intrusion of a citizen’s privacy and dignity”.

“Absent any legal justification it would constitute an assault punishable by imprisonment,” she said.

“Little imagination is needed to understand how stressful and potentially embarrassing a strip search may be, even for law-abiding adults. Even more so for young people with little experience of law enforcement in this context and limited understanding of their rights.”

Earlier public hearings in October revealed the allegedly illegal strip-search of a 16-year-old girl at the 2018 Splendour in the Grass festival.

The LECC’s commissioner, Michael Adams QC, told the hearing it would also look at the “general question” of how police were exercising their strip-search powers in NSW.

“It is very likely the particular examples which the commission has identified are but examples of much wider conduct which requires attention,” he said.