KEY POINTS:
A police sergeant acquitted of assaulting a prisoner in a cell is trying to block media efforts to have video footage of the incident released.
The family of alleged victim Rawiri Falwasser have backed media attempts to have the film released but Sergeant Keith Parsons opposing the move in the High Court at Auckland yesterday.
More than eight hours of footage was filmed at the Whakatane police station where Mr Falwasser, 20, was badly injured while in custody on Labour Day in 2006.
Mr Falwasser has said he feared for his life after being struck with batons and pepper-sprayed. He suffered gashes in his head and arm.
In June, the closed-circuit television tapes of the incident were played to a Tauranga District Court jury that acquitted Mr Parsons, 51, Sergeant Earle Busby, 46, Senior Constable Bruce Laing, 53, and Constable John Mills, 39, of nine charges of assaulting Mr Falwasser.
In court yesterday Mr Parsons' lawyer, Susan Hughes QC, said the tapes should not be released because the media would not broadcast the full tapes as seen by the jury.
"A release of the tapes and their showing would subvert the jury system," she told the court.
But lawyer Adam Hopkinson, acting for TVNZ and TV3, said not releasing the tapes would "inevitably lead to a view that the jury got it wrong and lead to public questioning of the verdict".
Mr Falwasser's mother, Kihi, said the family wanted the tapes released to media.
"People need to see it themselves to form their own opinion of what happened inside the cell."
Crown prosecutor Fletcher Pilditch told the court the public interest in the case was wider than just the verdict: "It related to how a person was treated in custody."
- NZPA
