‘It was humiliating’: Woman traumatised after strip search at festival
A young Newcastle woman is considering launching legal action against NSW Police after she was strip searched at a Sydney music festival despite carrying no drugs.
Lucy Moore, 19, attended Hidden Music Festival at Sydney Showgrounds last weekend.
She told Seven News she was forced to undress in view of police and festival goers after being targeted for a drug search.
Ms Moore added it came after she had one drink and a police sniffer dog sat beside her.
“As I was getting undressed she told me that I needed to squat and cough,” the teenager said.
“They said ‘well why did the dog sit next to you?’ And I said that I didn’t know, because I honestly didn’t and they told me it wouldn’t fly and then told me to get undressed even though she hadn’t even closed the door yet.”
She said she was interrogated for an hour but no drugs were found. She was handed a six-month ban from Sydney Olympic Park and now claims she’s been left traumatised by the experience.
“I’m not going to say that I’m definitely fine, because it is going to be a long mental recovery as it was quite traumatic and humiliating to me,” Ms Moore said.
Between 2016 and 2017 strip searches in New South Wales nearly doubled.
In the first six months of 2018 there were 735 strip searches, yet police statistics reveal sniffer dogs falsely detect drugs in two thirds of cases.
Five festival goers have died in the last six months of suspected drug overdoses.
Police have refused to comment while they conduct an internal review.
Authorities have been forced to step up operations at music festivals due to the five deaths, triggering a political war over maintaining civil liberties and preventing the senseless deaths of more young people.
Ms Moore and her mother are taking legal advice.
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