A Sydney SES volunteer who witnessed searches at an underage music festival has agreed he wasn't fully aware of the rights of the young people involved when he acted as their support person.
The man was one of two State Emergency Service volunteers sent to February's Lost City festival at Sydney Olympic Park to act as a support person for minors during police interviews, following a request from police.
He told a hearing of the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission on Thursday that when he got to the venue he was asked if he would object to witnessing searches.
He said he didn't anticipate that might involve strip searches until the first one, telling the commission it had been a "shock".
The SES volunteer agreed with chief commissioner Michael Adams QC that he didn't fully know what rights minors had in a strip-search situation, such as the right to have their parent or guardian present and have a support person that was acceptable to them.
He agreed with counsel assisting the commission, Dr Peggy Dwyer, that if he was told there were legal requirements he would have wanted to know them beforehand.
A police sniffer dog at Splendour in the Grass in July, 2019. Source: AAP
The man said he'd been present for about six searches at the festival but he couldn't recall if they were all strip-searches.
There was one strip-search he remembered clearly, where a young man had drugs in a condom which was "secreted in his back passage which he removed".
Another strip-search was stopped when a tablet or some substance was revealed in the person's personal possessions, the volunteer said.
The commission is considering the cases of three people who were strip-searched at the underage festival and the lawfulness and reasonableness of strip-search practices more generally.
The LECC earlier this week heard 31 teenagers were strip-searched at the event but police paperwork showed only six had a guardian or support person present.
A 15-year-old boy claimed an officer told him to "hold your dick and lift your balls up and show me your gooch" during a search while another boy said an officer who wasn't wearing gloves made contact with his genitals and buttocks.
The inquiry is expected to continue in 2020.
