Police sergeant told to pay $1250 to assault victim

Police Senior Sergeant Anthony Solomona. Herald file picture

A senior south Auckland policeman has been convicted of assaulting a teenager and told to pay the youngster $1250 for the emotional harm he caused.

Senior Sergeant Anthony Solomona appeared in Manukau District Court today after earlier being found guilty of assaulting the youth in the forecourt of a Manurewa service station in February last year.

Internal police disciplinary charges were also laid against him but held until the result of the criminal charges was known.

Detective Inspector Keith Brady, of police professional standards, said he would now recommend to police commissioner Rob Robinson that a police tribunal hear the charges.

He said Solomona was convicted and discharged and ordered to pay his victim for the emotional harm his treatment of him caused.

Solomona would remain on suspension until the disciplinary process had been completed, Mr Brady said.

"The process are that charges are laid against an officer. They then go before a tribunal to determine whether or not they are proved," Mr Brady said.

The incident led district court judge Bruce Davidson to criticise the heavy-handed techniques of Solomona and condemn a wider police culture as "sick".

The court had heard the culture included joke photographs of machete-wielding men making death threats, and the photographing of suspects made to wear demeaning signs.

He ruled Solomona had gone overboard in arresting Angelo Turner for repeatedly using "a common swear word" after Solomona drove into his car.

In his defence Solomona said he arrested Mr Turner to cool an increasingly volatile situation -- a defence rejected by the judge.

He acquitted Solomona on three further assault charges and one charge of assault with a weapon.

However, he strongly condemned "some disturbing police practices" raised during the hearing, including the photographing of a boy, 15, wearing a sign reading: "I am the property of Senior Sergeant Solomona" and the coercing of apology letters from suspects.

A photograph produced at the hearing showed a man in a police uniform and balaclava, swinging a machete and axe and wearing a sign saying "RIP to Section 4".

- NZPA