Yvonne Berry’s night in a Ballarat watch house saw the former Victorian police officer forced to drink toilet water, capsicum sprayed, stomped on and stripped of her pants and her underwear.

Ms Berry’s ordeal was captured on CCTV at Ballarat Police Station in January, 2015. Arrested after reports she was drunk and disorderly, Ms Berry was dragged into the station and placed in a cell.

Video shows her gesture towards a camera with an empty cup. Unable to get water from a tap, she placed the cup in the toilet and filled it up. Moments later, after asking for a blanket, Ms Berry is dragged from her cell and sprayed in the face with capsicum spray.

In the minutes that followed, Ms Berry is handcuffed, placed face down on the floor and stripped of her pants and her underwear.

An officer stomps on her ankles and another kicks her in the side.

“Someone … pulls my trackpants off, then pulls my underpants off,” Ms Berry told ABC 7.30 in 2016.

“I’m face down, I’m still handcuffed and I’ve been (capsicum) sprayed. I was absolutely helpless.

“It was excruciating. But I’m just starting to think, ‘What are they going to do next?’. My left ankle, by the end of the week, was black.”

She said her experience left her thinking “I’m in Guantanamo Bay”. But four years after being assaulted by officers, the former detective-turned-internal affairs officer has finally been compensated.

The Age reported on Monday Ms Berry received a secret $520,000 payout from Victoria Police that included $470,000 in personal compensation and $50,000 in legal costs. The payout is believed to be among the highest for settling a police brutality case in Victoria.

In November, senior constable Steven Repac was found guilty of assaulting Ms Berry when he stomped on her legs and stood on her ankles.

News.com.au has approached Victoria Police for comment.

In a statement, a police spokesman said: “Victoria Police has resolved a civil matter out of court. The matter related to an incident at Ballarat Police Station in January 2015 and was resolved out of court in June 2017.”

Victoria Police initially found there was not enough evidence to charge the officers involved. They were suspended temporarily but all were later reinstated.

Ms Berry admitted that prior to the 2015 incident she had struggled with mental issues stemming from traumatic experiences in the job, including things she saw during the Black Saturday bushfires in 2009 that killed 173 people.

Police brutality is being examined as part of an upcoming royal commission.

rohan.smith1@news.com.au | @ro_smith