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A woman who was captured on CCTV being stripped, stomped on and kicked in the Ballarat police cells has spoken out for the first time.
Key points
- Yvonne Berry arrested after allegedly being found drunk and incoherent
- Ballarat police stripped her, sprayed her with capsicum spray and kicked her
- Senior police say Ms Berry's treatment is unacceptable and have promised reform
Until today she has only been known as Person A. Now, Yvonne Berry, the victim of the alleged brutality, is fighting back, publicly telling her story to 7.30 and Fairfax Media.
At the time of the incident Ms Berry was on extended leave from her job as a policewoman working in internal affairs.
The police who allegedly assaulted her in Ballarat did not know they were dealing with a fellow police officer.
"If that's not why they were nasty to me, then they were just ... nasty to a member of the public, which is worse," she told 7.30.
"It could happen to anyone — and I've since found out that it did, and it does."
Time off for serious mental health issues
Ms Berry's journey to the Ballarat police cells on January 15, 2015, began many months earlier.
In 2014 she took time off from the force after facing serious mental health issues she attributes partly to her work in internal affairs and also from dealing with the horrific aftermath of the Black Saturday bushfires in 2009.
Ms Berry was one of many cops who still carry the scars of dealing with families whose loved ones had perished, and she's not the only one to turn to the bottle in an attempt to deal with them.
"I can still see the visions of all of that stuff today," she said.
On the evening of January 15, Ms Berry was found drunk and incoherent by a Ballarat resident.
The woman invited her into her home and called police, who arrested Ms Berry about 11:00pm after she attempted to run away.
What should have happened was Ms Berry spending the next four hours in a cell to sober up and possibly being given an infringement notice.
But it didn't unfold that way — she would remain in police custody for 16 hours.
The CCTV vision shows Ms Berry in a police cell attempting to use a broken drinking fountain before gesturing to the camera for water. Ms Berry said there was no response, so she drank from the cell's toilet.
About 1:00am Ms Berry became agitated, demanding a blanket and asking to speak to police, who at this stage still did not know she was a fellow officer.
When the cell door was opened by a policewoman, Ms Berry pushed past, swiping the officer's lanyard. Ms Berry claims she noticed a capsicum spray bottle and reacted because she feared being sprayed.
She struggled with two officers before copping a large dose of spray in her face.
"[It's] absolutely disgusting, it burns like fire on your skin," she said.
Dragged to the cells, stripped and stomped on
After she was sprayed, the CCTV vision shows Ms Berry wandering the police station alone in a capsicum spray fog before being handcuffed.
"He put the cuffs on so tight they nearly broke my wrists," she said.
"I'd seen it done to criminals."
Photos of her wrists taken later show the deep bruising.
She was then dragged on the floor by an officer to a cell. Facedown and still handcuffed, a male officer pulled down Ms Berry's underwear, apparently searching for the missing lanyard.
"I'm facedown, I'm still handcuffed and I'd been sprayed. I was absolutely helpless," she said.
A 95-kilogram policeman, Steven Repac, can be seen standing on Ms Berry's feet while she was still naked. He stomped on her ankle.
Later he told Victoria's Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC) hearing he was trying to stop Ms Berry kicking other officers.
Mr Repac was also filmed kicking Ms Berry.
Ms Berry disputes Mr Repac's explanation, as well as the claim from a female officer that she kicked Ms Berry to "calm her down".
"I was basically lying there like a fat jellyfish," she said.
Photos of the injuries she says she sustained show an ankle crimson from deep bruising, which a doctor later said was fractured, a purple wrist from the handcuffs, and bruises, cuts and welts.
'I'm in Guantanamo Bay. This isn't Ballarat... it can't be'
After her underwear was pulled back up by police, and wearing only a T-shirt, Ms Berry was taken to a shower where she said she was scalded by hot water that exacerbated the effects of the capsicum spray.
"Not only does the capsicum spray activate on your skin … when it's hot water [it] opens your pores, burns you even more … the hot water was burning my skin," Ms Berry told 7.30.
She says she asked two policemen to turn down the water, which they ignored.
Instead, Ms Berry claims one of the officers said, in an apparent reference to her weight: "You're f***ing disgusting."
Later, as she lay in the cell, wet and covered with a blanket, Ms Berry had a moment of realisation.
As a cop, Ms Berry had observed many "crooks" treated inhumanely. Now it was happening to her.
"I was absolutely horrified. Stressed, demoralised," she said.
"Later on when I am in the cell, later on in the incident, I was just thinking, I'm in Guantanamo Bay. This isn't Ballarat... it can't be."
Leaving the force and facing charges
After Ms Berry was released from the police station, she says she was approached by the IBAC to make a statement about the vision that was captured on CCTV.
Ms Berry said the vision speaks for itself and that the assaults captured on film should have prompted the charging of the officers involved.
But in February this year she was notified in writing by police there was "insufficient evidence to support a criminal prosecution in relation to allegations of assault".
The two police accused of assaulting Ms Berry were told they could return to work.
The only person to be charged has been Ms Berry, who last year finally left the police force on mental health grounds after 25 years' service.
In January, Ms Berry was charged with multiple criminal offences stemming from her night in custody, including resisting arrest.
She was also charged for theft of a motor car in December 2014, after police found a stolen vehicle parked outside her home in country Victoria.
The prospect of facing court left Ms Berry suicidal.
But 7.30 can reveal that in August, after advice from a senior barrister, all charges against Ms Berry were withdrawn and police are now considering whether a police officer accused of assaulting Ms Berry can be charged.
Ms Berry's ordeal has led to a rare mea culpa by senior police.
Professional Standards Command Superintendent Tony De Ridder says he was "personally mortified" about her treatment in Ballarat's police cells, which was partly the product of "a total lack of leadership" in the police station.
"I thought, on face value, there were clear breaches of human rights and assaults had occurred, and I also thought the behaviour of our members was inconsistent with our training, the way we ask our people to behave," he told 7.30.
"I was very shocked."
Superintendent De Ridder said the force was "looking to change our culture totally, so that human rights…. [are] embedded in everything we do."
Topics: law-crime-and-justice, police, assault, ballarat-3350
First posted