A Victorian police officer has told an anti-corruption hearing she didn't maliciously kick a distressed, drunk, partially naked prisoner - who turned out to be a fellow cop - saying she only wanted to calm her down.
Leading Senior Constable Nicole Munro is one of several officers captured on CCTV video footage that allegedly shows the 51-year-old policewoman being kicked, dragged, stripped and stomped on while being held in police cells.
Ms Munro, an experienced officer, defended her actions on Tuesday at an Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission hearing into alleged use of excessive force at Ballarat Police Station.
"I do remember touching her with my foot. I was trying to get her attention, to calm her down," she told the hearing.
"I did not kick her hard, there was nothing malicious."
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It was January 2015, and while the woman had shown aggression when she was arrested for drunkenness, she complied with police directions when she arrived at the station.
She did not identify herself as an officer and Ballarat police only found out hours later that she worked for Ethical Standards.
Ballarat sergeant Travis Barber was on patrol when he called the station to report his car had broken down at 2.30am and found out there was a policewoman in custody.
When he returned to the station just after 6am, he directed staff to preserve CCTV footage of the incident, visited the cells to check on the woman and offered her a blanket.
The woman was half naked.
She had been pepper sprayed, stomped on, kicked, stripped and dragged about by officers.
One of them, who can only be identified as Officer A, said that happened after the woman announced she shouldn't be in custody and tried to push her way out of a cell.
During a struggle with Officer A, the woman snatched a security pass and the search for it ended with calls for more officers to help and chaotic scenes.
Ms Munro says when she arrived the woman was face down on the floor, her hands cuffed behind her back and practically naked from the waist down.
Ms Munro says she didn't see her colleagues forcibly kick or stomp on the woman, despite the video showing she was inside the cell when it happened.
Counsel assisting Jack Rush QC on Monday told the inquiry Ballarat has more than three times the average number of assault complaints made against its officers compared to similar stations.
The hearing before IBAC Commissioner Stephen O'Bryan continues and will investigate three other cases over the next three days.
