‘Compensation will be sought’: Hannah Thomas to launch civil case against police after prosecutors drop charges

Prosecutors have dropped charges against Hannah Thomas, who suffered a serious eye injury when officers broke up an anti-Israel protest in June, with the former Greens candidate now set to launch civil action against the NSW Police.

Almost three months after Thomas was charged along with four other protesters at an anti-Israel rally, lawyers representing the Director of Public Prosecutions asked for the charges against her to be “withdrawn and dismissed” at Bankstown Local Court on Tuesday.

Outside court, her lawyer Peter O’Brien confirmed she would launch a civil case against the NSW Police. He also revealed he expected the officer involved in Thomas’ arrest to be charged.

“We expect the police officer, a police officer, will be charged. Others should certainly be disciplined,” he said.

Thomas suffered a serious eye injury after police broke up an anti-Israel protest outside SEC Plating on June 27, a business in Belmore. She has undergone multiple surgeries since, and was warned by doctors that she may never regain vision in her right eye.

She was one of five protesters charged after the demonstration, which prompted serious criticism of NSW Police because of doubts over which laws officers relied on to break up the demonstration.

Thomas was charged while still in hospital with resisting arrest and refusing an order to disperse following the protest.

This masthead subsequently revealed she had been charged using a rarely invoked emergency anti-riot power introduced after the 2005 Cronulla riots to deal with “large-scale public disorder”, which required authorisation from senior police to be used.

Police later said that the charge would be withdrawn and replaced with a standard charge for refusing to obey a move-on order.

But on Tuesday, all the charges against her were dropped. Outside court, Thomas said she was relieved but said it was “far from justice” and police had not been “held to account for their behaviour”.

“The punch I sustained was just one example police brutality that morning, the actions of every cop at that protest should be reviewed [and] criminal and disciplinary consequences should follow,” she said.

“It took the police two days to charge me, but 73 days later, the male police officer who punched me in the head with enough force to rip open my right eyeball has not been charged, and to the best of my knowledge, he remains in uniform prowling the streets of western Sydney.

“If he was willing to punch me in the face in front of so many witnesses and with people filming, I shudder to think what he is doing when no one’s watching.”

Two of the other five protesters also appeared in court on Tuesday.

Police also dropped the charges against Zackary Schofield, who, was also accused of failing to comply with a move on direction and resisting police.

Another protester, Brandon Eid, charged after he allegedly temporarily stole a police body-worn camera as officers broke up the protest, was found guilty of having suspected stolen goods in his possession. However, no conviction was recorded and another charge of larceny was withdrawn.

Tuesday’s decision will prompt Thomas, who stood for the Greens against Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in the inner west seat of Grayndler at the federal election, to commence civil action against the NSW Police over the arrest.

O’Brien, her lawyer, said outside court that he planned to formally launch civil action in the NSW Supreme Court.

“Its a very, very serious injury, and compensation will be sought,” he said.

He is also pursuing costs against the NSW Police, which he said were “considerable”.

The charges against Thomas “should never have been laid”, he said, and “once they were laid, they should have been withdrawn a lot sooner than they were”.

Senior police initially said there was no wrongdoing by officers during her arrest, and documents provided to the courts by police blamed “interference” from other protesters for her injury.

In the days after the incident, Assistant Commissioner Brett McFadden told the ABC he had conducted a “preliminary review” of body-worn footage from the arrest along with other senior officers and was not investigating the potential for excessive use of force by officers.

At the time, he said there was “no information at this stage before me that indicates any misconduct on behalf of any of my officers”.

However, her case was referred to the NSW Police internal affairs unit after this masthead revealed both lawyers and police sources who had reviewed body-worn footage from the protest said it showed she was punched.

In July, the NSW Police issued a statement confirming the referral, saying it was probing “questions of excessive force” by officers.

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