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Allegations
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Caption: Before the Court - Sergeant Kerry Joyce faces
charges of assault with intent to injure and assault. Photo: David Alexander Claims of police
brutality have been made by two brothers who were allegedly attacked while
lying handcuffed and defenceless in Cathedral Square. Elton James said in the
Christchurch District Court that he had three teeth kicked out by a police
officer after he was arrested at the end of a drunken night out celebrating
the All Blacks' last-minute win over the Springboks at Jade Stadium last
July. His brother, Palmerston
North farmer Andrew James, was also arrested and handcuffed, during which he
was allegedly shoved face-first into the paving of Cathedral Square and told,
"You're not so funny now." Both men say their
assailant was Sergeant Kerry Dale Joyce, who faces charges of assault with
intent to injure and assault. Elton James, a builder
based in Christchurch, told the depositions hearing their group was heading
across Cathedral Square to get a taxi home early on July 27 when he had to
urinate and chose a spot between two parked cars next to a building. He said he did not know
that the building was the police kiosk in Cathedral Square and the two cars
were unmarked police cars. "A policewoman came
out of the kiosk and said, `What are you doing, p...... on our cars?' I
realised I'd done something wrong," he said. "I was turned
around by two other officers and they threw me on the boot of the car, put my
arms behind me, handcuffed me and put me on the ground. "I thought they'd
over-reacted and they were a pathetic lot and it was stupid what they'd done.
I told them so." Soon after, he realised
his brother had come over and been arrested, handcuffed and left on the
ground beside him. Then, he said, Joyce arrived. "The first time I
saw him was when he actually kicked me," James said. "He kicked me
right in the teeth and I saw my teeth – I wear a plate with a false tooth –
go right across the ground. "He also broke the
teeth on either side, and they went across the ground as well. "I looked straight
up. When it happened, my vision was crystal clear. I have absolutely no doubt
that it was him (Joyce) that did it. After he kicked me it gave me good
reason to watch him and get a good description. "I turned to my
brother and said, `That bastard just knocked my teeth out'. I didn't say
anything to Joyce. He came and watched me, maybe for 10 or 15 seconds, then
disappeared." James said he was taken
with his brother and another friend to the Christchurch Central police
station and processed, during which he saw Joyce again and got his badge
number. Pip Hall, for Joyce,
said when Elton James wrote Joyce's badge number down, he annoted
"Pig" next to it. James said he had
nothing against the police and had friends in the force, but he was angry at
the time about his treatment. Hall questioned how
James could not have recognised the police kiosk, which featured
"police" in big letters and matching police insignia. "It's pretty
obvious it's a police building, is it not?" James: "At the
time, I didn't think it was obvious." Hall: "You seem to
have remembered a number of very fine details but you're unable to remember
the obvious, like the sign outside the police kiosk. "According to my
assessment, you'd drunk about 10 pints of beer and five stubbies – about one
and a half gallons of beer in the old imperial measure." James: "That's
probably about right. It was over a long period of time. I'd drunk enough to
make a bad call about urinating between the cars. "I'm not saying my
recall was perfect and I'm not saying I was sober, but it's quite sobering
when you get assaulted by somebody." He was adamant he had
correctly identified Joyce as the man who attacked him. The depositions hearing
will resume next week |
