Watchhouse log missed doctor's visit

Anthony Solomona

Former South Auckland police officer Anthony Solomona has given evidence for the defence of four constables being sued by a man who lost his left testicle in an alleged brutal arrest.

Solomona, a former senior sergeant, was found guilty in March of assaulting a teenager at a Manurewa service station.

No longer in the police, Solomona gave evidence in the Auckland District Court yesterday for the defence of constables Rupert Friend, Aaron George, Michael Carter and Stephen Bass.

Manurewa man Paul Pure is suing the four and the Attorney-General, alleging the officers used excessive force when they arrested him at his estranged wife's Manurewa home on August 12, 2000.

Solomona was the sergeant in charge of the Papakura police station watch-house the day after Mr Pure was brought in.

During his arrest Mr Pure alleges the constables pepper-sprayed him, beat him about the head and shoulders with a torch and tied his hands and feet before dragging him out of his wife Grace's house and dumping him on the concrete where he was kicked in the testicles by a plain-clothes police officer.

He says when he was taken to the Papakura police station he was put in the detoxification cell still cuffed and hosed down while officers laughed.

Mr Pure says they failed to get him medical attention when he discovered his testicle had swelled to twice its normal size.

Solomona's evidence was brief, telling defence counsel Anna Pollett he did not remember Mr Pure and there was nothing unusual recorded about prisoners received at the station.

Mr Pure, who arrived at the station about 10.30pm, was seen by a doctor who examined his testicle at the station about 5.30am and again at 1.30pm on August 13.

Solomona said it was not unusual for a doctor's visit not to be noted when there could be 30 or more prisoners in the cells.

In closing Mr Pure's case yesterday Nicolette Levy said the police officers' evidence over the past three days had been inconsistent.

She said none of them could say how many or how long police officers were at the house where Mr Pure was arrested and the injury to his testicle could not be written off as being caused during his struggle with police as he was being arrested.

She said there had been undisputed medical evidence which proved a clot found in Mr Pure's testicle when it was removed a month after the incident was caused by trauma consistent with some sort of force or blow.

Defence counsel Ross Burns said the injury could have been caused another way.

"It is clear on the facts that the plaintiff had been in an uncontrolled and irrational state before the police arrived and there was a melee in the kitchen involving three police officers the plaintiff and at times Grace Pure."

He said any kick was denied by the officers and given Mr Pure's intoxication his memory of what happened in the police cells may have been amplified. Judge Josephine Bouchier is expected to give her decision on Friday.