Cop investigation over abuse claim

Andrew Mathieson
VICTORIA Police’s ethical standards department is investigating claims a Geelong officer swore and racially abused a man minutes after he reported an assault.
Melbourne’s Lee Peers alleged the officer abused him after “two gorilla-like, heavily tattooed men” allegedly spear-tackled and punched him and his friends on their way back from a central Geelong nightclub.
Mr Peers said his assailants were only 100 metres away when he approached three police officers on the street.
One of the officers told him to “p..s off” as he reported the assault, Mr Peers said.
Mr Peers, who emigrated from Liverpool, England, in 2002, also alleged that the officer told him to “f..k off with your shitty accent” when he tried to intervene in his friend’s arrest for insulting police seconds later.
“He said it all under his breath like a side comment,” Mr Peers said.
“He obviously didn’t want to say it too loud in case anyone else heard.”
Mr Peers said the other two officers “sort of like smirked” in response to the alleged verbal abuse.
Mr Peers believed that the police offices had not wanted to deal with his assault complaint.
“The officer saw them (the alleged assailants) walk away,” he said.
“He just looked at them and just turned a blind eye.”
Mr Peers said the earlier unprovoked punch from one of the assailants had moved his jaw out of position and left him spitting blood. Weeks later Mr Peers could still not close his back teeth and was suffering bursts of pain between an ear and the top of his jaw, he said.
Mr Peers called the entire incident shocking.
“I think it has put me off coming back to Geelong,” he said.
Mr Peers wrote a letter about the incident to Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Simon Overland and lodged a complaint with the ethical standards department.
A Victoria Police spokesperson confirmed Mr Peers’ complain was under investigation.
However, the spokesperson could not say whether or not the officer had been disciplined, suspended or stood down.