PULLED over at night on a back road in Victoria's north-east, the two men sit on the ground with their hands on their knees. Three police officers enter the picture, and the beating begins.

An officer repeatedly kicks one of the men and then beats him about the head with his baton. In the background an officer can be seen punching the other man in the face and head as he cowers behind his car. A third officer looks on.

The graphic video footage was taken from a dashboard camera in the patrol car that pulled the men over just before 10.30pm on May 2 this year.

Several minutes earlier, the two victims, David Bray and Ryan "Spud" Boyd, had been caught doing burnouts outside the Mansfield police station.

Although neither went to hospital, Mr Bray said he had bruises in "tiger stripes" and Mr Boyd said he woke up the next day with his head stuck to the pillow where the blood on his scalp had congealed, and had such a swollen face that he ate canned spaghetti for days.