SA cop caught by news crew bashing homeless men accused of threatening young girl
7 News can reveal that a police officer who beat two itinerant men at Whitmore Square has had a second complaint of aggressive misconduct made against him.
The Police Ombudsman has asked that he be stripped of his authority.
Seven News was there when Shaun Jones and Chris Macke were hit with a police baton by Constable Matthew Schwarz.
Charges against the homeless men were dropped more than two years ago with a magistrate ruling that police had used excessive force.
The Police Ombudsman has now revealed the DPP did not pursue Constable Schwarz criminally because he was in a fragile state of mind.
Instead Schwarz is facing the highly secretive police disciplinary tribunal.
A trial is set for January.
“No one is exempt from the law no matter what your standing is or your title is,” the victims’ lawyer Andrew Carpenter said.
“If one person has been harmed, obviously it would be a risk to let another person suffer that same fate.”
Shadow Police Minister Dan van Holst Pellekaan said the delay in dealing with Constable Schwarz case was “completely unacceptable”.
“And what’s worse is that in the meantime one of the complainants is presumed to have died and also the same officer is alleged to have been involved in another very serious incident,” he said.
“That officer clearly needs some support but the public deserves to be protected to.”
A teenage P-Plater also claims Schwarz threatened her, thumping on her car window.
That complaint will be heard next month.
The Police Ombudsman called for the officer’s police ID to be revoked in the interests of public safety but the Police Commissioner has refused.
