Constable Luke Mewing took the witness stand on Thursday at the Police Integrity Commission (PIC), which is looking into the alleged assault of Corey Barker, 24, by five officers and accusations that he assaulted one of them.
Mr Barker was charged with punching Senior Constable David Hill while in custody at Ballina police station, on the NSW north coast, in January 2011.
"That evidence was just wrong, wasn't it?" counsel assisting the PIC hearing Stephen Rushton, SC, said. "I guess so," Const Mewing said. "You knew that it was wrong when you gave it," Mr Rushton said.
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"I believed it at the time that I saw (the incident)." Const Mewing made a written statement and gave evidence in Ballina Local Court saying Mr Barker had punched his colleague.
Mr Barker was charged with assaulting police and other charges relating to his attempt to intervene in a violent street confrontation between two of his friends and police.
After his arrest, the officers claimed he punched Sen Const Hill while they were walking him from a holding cage to a cell at the rear of the station.
The PIC has been told CCTV footage does not bear out that version of events, but it does show the officers slamming Mr Barker into a wall and wrestling him to the ground where he was kicked and kneed.
Const Mewing was not shown the CCTV footage, which was previously thought to be damaged, before he made his written statement or gave evidence in the local court. "Do you now accept that, in fact, the CCTV shows Mr Barker did not assault Sen Const Hill?" Mr Rushton asked.
"Yes, I do now," he replied. Const Mewing said he delivered a "knee strike" to Mr Barker while the five officers had him pinned to the ground.
"It's a move, a weapons-control strike, for pain compliance," he told the PIC. When asked, he acknowledged that Mr Barker was unarmed and the tactic may not have been necessary.
The footage also shows Mr Barker was handcuffed and dragged along the floor by his arms which were rotated above his head. He has told the PIC being dragged in that position caused him the most pain he had ever experienced.
Statements from the officers said Mr Barker was dragged because he would not comply with a command to stand up.
Giving evidence previously, Const Mewing has admitted the prisoner would not have been able to stand up. "How does one get up from a flat surface with two or three police on top of you with handcuffs on?" he was asked last year. "You probably can't get up," Const Mewing replied.
Const Mewing also changed his previous evidence about how he had recalled what happened. He told Ballina Local Court he had relied on his memory and the official police account of events.
The PIC heard on Wednesday that he had no entry in his police notebook of the street confrontation or the police station incident. But on Thursday, he admitted he had received statements from Sen Const Hill and Const Lee Walmsley. He said it was standard practice in the Richmond local area command for officers to do so in preparing their evidence, and Sen Const Hill's statement had been emailed to him.
The PIC heard the officers' written statements were nearly identical in referring to offensive language Mr Barker had allegedly used before the officers transferred him from the holding cage.
Const Mewing said his field training officer had taught him to share statements among officers who were present at the same incidents. "He told you that was the appropriate way to go?" Mr Rushton asked.
"I believe so," he responded.
