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Update 4.30pm: A Northern Rivers police officer has walked free from court after being found not guilty of a charge of common assault. Lismore Local Court began hearing evidence in the case against Senior Constable Michial Luke Greenhalgh, 39, in November last year. The hearing continued before Magistrate Michael Dakin this week. The officer pleaded not guilty to a charge of common assault, which the prosecution alleged he committed by way of six of 18 baton strikes he inflicted upon a naked and drug-affected 16-year-old boy in Lateen Lane, Byron Bay in the early hours of January 11, 2018. Magistrate Michael Dakin has this afternoon dismissed the charge, finding the prosecution had not proved beyond a reasonable doubt Sen-Constable Greenhalgh s actions were not a reasonable use of force.
Mia Armitage
Senior Constable Michial Luke Greenhalgh is alleged to have assaulted the teenage boy in Lateen Lane, sometime between two and three o’clock in the morning on 11 January 2018, after responding to reports of him wandering half-naked and calling out.
Holiday-makers, a Byron resident and a backpackers’ hostel manager all saw or heard parts of the interaction between the youth and the four police officers on-scene.
One witness took video footage that quickly made national headlines and was later used as evidence in a Law Enforcement Conduct Commission
[LECC] inquiry examining the actions of all four policemen featured.
The LECC recommended the Department of Public Prosecutions
End of police officer s assault hearing draws near northernstar.com.au - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from northernstar.com.au Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.