The sickening footage of police officers’ attack on mentally ill woman

Warning: graphic content

Two former NSW Police officers who stomped on the face of a mentally ill woman and pepper-sprayed her naked body will spend at least the next three years in prison.

Family members of Timothy John Trautsch, 30, and Nathan Black, 28, bowed their heads and became emotional as the men were sentenced to prison at Penrith District Court on Friday over the 2023 attack, as confronting footage and images of the brutal assault were made public.

The pair pleaded guilty to assault and misusing a prohibited weapon, while Black also admitted to two counts of intentionally publishing protected information.

Black was sentenced to five years and nine months in prison with a non-parole period of three years and three months.

Trautsch was sentenced to five years and six months in prison with a non-parole period of three years.

Details of the disturbing incident were made public after the Herald and other news outlets launched a successful legal bid to reveal the pair’s misconduct following the death of their victim in unrelated circumstances.

Acting NSW Police Commissioner David Hudson condemned the actions of both officers, describing their behaviour as unforgivable and “one of the worst examples of contravening our core values and ethics I have ever seen” in his 40 years of policing.

“This behaviour completely contradicts the commitment we make as officers to uphold the values and ethics of wearing the blue uniform… It is simply not what we stand for as police who make a pledge to protect the community.”

In January 2023, the officers were called to an Emu Plains cul-de-sac to help the 49-year-old woman, who was naked and bathing herself in a puddle. The woman was living unmedicated with schizophrenia after being released earlier that day from the nearby Amber Laurel women’s prison.

Body-worn and CCTV footage earlier shown in court and partially released to the media on Friday began with the woman sitting on a nature strip, naked, swearing at police and refusing to tell them her name. She told the two plain-clothed police officers she would “put them both down” and “aliens were watching”.

One officer told the woman she would be sectioned to Nepean Hospital.

“I’m terrified of you people,” the woman screamed.

“You ain’t got the drugs to fix me, you ain’t got the drugs to put me out. You can’t beat me … that gun is not going to help you.”

The woman ran as she was tackled on the road. She was sitting cross-legged, praying for God’s protection, as one of the officers fired pepper, or OC, spray into her face and vagina.

Covered in her own excrement and the spray, the woman washed herself in the gutter.

Black periodically turned his camera on and off, with another clip capturing the officers laughing.

“Wash your c---, wash your arse, wash it out,” Black was heard saying.

“What the f--- is going on?”

At one point, Black’s camera dropped to the ground, showing only the road and a power pole, as the woman screamed in the background, calling out in prayer and pain.

Trautsch and Black dragged her across the road by her hair and repeatedly kicked her in the face, body and head. They sprayed her visibly grazed back with more pepper spray as she rolled on the ground.

“That’s enough, there could be cameras,” Trautsch warned Black.

NSW Ambulance paramedics witnessed the attack and rushed the woman to hospital before raising the alarm. One asked Black if the woman had been sprayed in her genitalia.

“Yes, you have to do what you have to do,” Black replied.

Delivering his sentencing remarks, Judge Graham Turnbull SC said both men were “relatively experienced police officers at the time”.

He said neither requested additional police resources at the scene despite their availability and that it was clear that “aside from [the woman] being naked, there was no criminal offence potentially available”.

The judge said the pair made “no attempt to engage” with the woman.

“There was no gentleness,” he said, adding that while the woman was making threats, these were a reflection of her mental state and “it could not be seriously conceded” that the officers were “at risk of any harm, let alone serious harm”.

‘One of the worst examples of contravening our core values and ethics I have ever seen’

Acting Commissioner Dave Hudson

“They accept, by their guilty pleas, their conduct was not reasonably necessary in order to carry out a function nor was it a reasonable response to a threat they perceived from [the victim],” Turnbull said.

“They accept their use of OC spray did not amount to reasonable force.”

Turnbull noted police are trained not to use pepper spray within 90 centimetres of a person and not to use it for the “sole purpose of inflicting pain”.

“There was no contemplation then, or at any other time, to resort to any other option other than physical restraints, and that is concerning,” he said.

Referring to the unfolding “fight”, which was not equal “in any way, shape or form”, Turnbull said he perceived the woman’s act of grabbing the handcuffs as “nothing but an inevitable part of [her] trying to protect herself”.

“Those who offer themselves up to serve the community are trusted and expected by the community to not only enforce the law but abide by it seriously,” he said.

“This is very serious offending that requires nothing but full-time custody”.

The CCTV and body-worn footage of the attack was so confronting that police claimed it should be suppressed for 60 years to protect the woman from further trauma. But, despite the woman’s death in “unconnected” circumstances, police left the suppression order in place.

Last month Turnbull allowed the media to watch the vision in court, but had reserved his decision on whether to publicly release it until Trautsch and Black were sentenced. On Friday, he chose to release the CCTV footage and images but not the body-worn video.

The court was also shown various CCTV-captured images of the attack. Turnbull described one photo as picturing the “assailants towering over… this woman trying to protect herself as best she can”.

“That is quite clearly one of the offenders deliberately targeting the abrasion on the back and spraying OC spray. It speaks for itself.”

Turnbull commended the paramedics who flagged their concern over the woman’s treatment to their managers and hospital staff for further investigation.

‘This is very serious offending that requires nothing but full-time custody.’

Judge Graham Turnbull, SC

However, the judge also said the men’s positive character references, which described them as “much-loved” leaders who contribute to their families, were “important considerations”.

“I accept they have no convictions and were previously of good character… these men are vilified and will continue to be so in the community,” Turnbull said.

The court earlier heard Black sent parts of the video to a colleague on Facebook Messenger, writing: “She was f----- the whole body worn [footage] is so good shows her being f-----.”

Black and Trautsch launched a workers’ compensation claim against NSW Police, with the former saying he was not supported over trauma suffered from witnessing decapitations at work.

Doctors told the compensation court that Black developed a liver infection as the woman’s bodily fluids entered his blood when she bit the officers. The commission held that he was diagnosed with PTSD before the incident and must be paid while suspended.

Turnbull said that any pre-existing mental health issue was “not a mitigating factor” in their punishment.

Trautsch and Black were initially suspended without pay. They resigned from NSW Police before they could be formally fired.

Police said they commenced an internal investigation immediately and “both officers were removed from the organisation at the earliest opportunity”.

Black will be eligible for parole on November 7, 2028. Trautsch will be eligible for release on August 7, 2028.

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