David Weber reported this story on Friday, December 10, 2010 08:15:00

TONY EASTLEY: A Corruption and Crime Commission hearing in Perth has been told a man may have been Tasered more than 40 times in one week.



The Commission is conducting a public inquiry into whether police or corrective services officers engaged in misconduct in relation to the arrest and detention of a man called Kevin Spratt.



Video footage of Mr Spratt being Tasered more than a dozen times on the floor of a police watch house in 2008 was released by the CCC earlier this year.



Now security footage of a separate incident has been released.



David Weber prepared this report.



(Extract from released footage):



POLICEMAN: If you don't lie down I'm going to Taser you. Turn around and lie down. Turn around and lie down!



(End of extract)



DAVID WEBER: The Corrective Services Minister had said he didn't want to release the footage because it would reveal the tactics of the Emergency Support Group.



What the footage shows is about six officers in full riot gear taking Mr Spratt from his cell by force.



(Extract from released footage):



(Man screaming)



(Sound of Taser being fired twice)



(Sound of a scuffle)



POLICEMAN: Lay still, lay still.



(End of extract)



DAVID WEBER: While Mr Spratt is on the floor he's Tasered 11 times.



After the footage was released Mr Spratt said he'd suffered significant injuries at the hands of the authorities.



KEVIN SPRATT: I was hospitalised with broken ribs, a punctured lung and a dislocated shoulder. In addition after being Tasered at the East Perth watch house in August 2008 and during the cell extraction the next month I have suffered significant memory loss.



DAVID WEBER: Police have said Kevin Spratt was violent while in custody and he even spat blood at officers.



Mr Spratt said he accepted he had not behaved appropriately.



KEVIN SPRATT: Much has been made by the police and others of my criminal record and the manner in which I conducted myself in the presence of the police. They are matters which I deeply regret.



However as even the Commissioner of Police himself conceded in writing to me and making an unreserved apology for what had happened to me in the East Perth watch house those matters do not excuse what was done to me.



DAVID WEBER: The Corruption and Crime Commission has been told Tasers were used on Kevin Spratt dozens of times over a period of one week in 2008.



After he was arrested for suspected burglary on August the 31st police Tasered him 14 times at the Perth watch house.



Six days later he was taken into custody again. Police Tasered him eight times during the arrest, eight times at the watch house and then corrective services officers Tasered him 11 times.



The state secretary of the Prison Officers' Union John Welch says his members did nothing wrong.



JOHN WELCH: We are very confident that our members acted in line with the policies and procedures that they are required to follow. Nobody is going to be thinking to use a Taser when a prisoner is compliant or is not presenting as a threat.



DAVID WEBER: The CCC continues its hearings next week.



TONY EASTLEY: David Weber.