A distressing five-minute clip of NSW Police bodycam footage showing the arrest of Raiders centre Curtis Scott has been distributed after being shown in a Sydney court on Wednesday, a day after Scott had assault charges against him dismissed.
It begins shortly after 2am on 27 January with a clearly inebriated Scott handcuffed by NSW Police officers while passed out against a Moreton Bay Fig tree in Sydney’s Moore Park.
He was then woken and repeatedly told by NSW Police to stand up before officers grab him to lift him to his feet.
At this point Scott repeatedly says, “I’ve done nothing wrong mate”.
After refusing to get to his feet Scott is then pepper sprayed before being immediately told to stand to his feet and that he’s under arrest for assaulting police.
Footage then cuts ahead 72 seconds and Scott is seen wincing in pain from the pepper spray with his arms to his eyes.
Shortly after Scott is aggravated when an officer applies pressure to one of his feet, at which point police tell him to “stop” or else he “will be tasered”.
A taser gun is then seen in the bodycam footage, and then quickly shot at Scott as he continues to suffer in the pain from the pepper spray.
Five minutes later police are seen laughing at Scott, telling him “it’s just pepper spray” and to “relax mate, it’s not that bad”.
Force is then applied to Scott’s neck as he sits against the tree.
WARNING: Distressing footage
“It’s something that I don’t really want to go back and look on to be honest,” Scott told the media this morning.
“It’s been pretty traumatic for me, but then again I know I put myself in that situation so I’m just happy it’s behind me now.”
ABC News reported that NSW Police requested in court that the footage be not made public.
The incident happened during the NRL off-season after Scott had been recruited to Canberra from the Melbourne Storm, but before he had debuted for the club.
Scott said he’s now looking forward to getting his life back together both on and off-field, with the charges dropped “a big weight” lifted off his shoulders.
“It‘s only been a day out of court … I’m just happy I can get a full eight hours sleep at night and not wake up in an anxiety attack.”
“It was tough there for nine months waiting to know that the allegations that were tossed out weren’t true.”
Regardless of the charges being dropped Scott said he accepted “full responsibility for my actions of the night”.
“I didn’t go out to put myself in that position but unfortunately, I did,” he said.
“I just felt like I let a lot of people down at the club, they’ve jumped through a lot of hoops and done a lot for me, especially (Raiders head coach Ricky Stuart), to get me here,” he said.
“I was really embarrassed of what happened, they’re forever in my debt now and I’ve got to get back playing the footy I should be playing.”
Stuart said he felt for Scott regarding what he’s gone through since charges were laid against him following the incident.
“The club and the players have all rallied around Curtis … we hadn’t seen the vision so we could only go off what we’ve been told.
“But he knew he’d be sacked by the club if he assaulted a police officer so that was always hanging over his head too.
“Now seeing what I’ve seen I can totally see how it has affected his thinking and preparation toward football because I believe he’s got a lot to offer.”
Stuart said the actions of the officers who arrested Scott have let down a lot of good police officers.
“I support police, I always have, they’ve got a very tough job,” he said.
“I don’t believe the people I support in the police … they would support those actions of those officers on that night.”
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