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Mia Armitage
Magistrate Michael Dakin has ordered a common assault charge against a former Byron-based policeman be dropped after an altercation involving a naked youth in Byron Bay three years ago.
Earlier this week, the Department of Public Prosecutions
[DPP] argued Senior Constable Michial Luke Greenhalgh had entered a state of ‘red mist’ when he struck the boy, who he says he didn’t realise was sixteen, a final six times with his baton. DPP’s Brittany Parker. Photo supplied.
Prosecutor Brittany Parker said ‘red mist’ was a state of frustration that could manifest suddenly in a sufferer focussing excessively on a particular target and exercising poor judgment.
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Subscriber only A Northern Rivers police officer who has pleaded not guilty to a common assault charge has disagreed with a suggestion he was in a heightened state , was frustrated and lost self-control . Michial Luke Greenhalgh has been defending an allegation six baton strikes he inflicted upon a 16-year-old boy in Byron Bay was an unreasonable use of force and constituted common assault. The charge arose from a January 11, 2018 police operation during which he and three colleagues detained a teen in Lateen Lane in Byron Bay. When DPP prosecutor Brittany Parker asked Sen-Constable Greenhalgh if he assumed the young person was going to be violent and if he was in a heightened state , frustrated and lost self-control , he said this was not the case.
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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.